I find caring about a language being “ugly” such a weird concept. Like, imagine caring that a hammer is pretty or not… All I care about is how well it can hammer my nails and that’s literally it.
Your interface with code is your eyes, so it can matter a lot how it appears. We read code more than we write, so writing for legibility is important. People talk about line noise. And we use syntax highlighters and monospaced fonts. All of this is for appearances.
Also, that was a nonsense metaphor for you to use. The grip being slippery is so far removed from “beauty” that not even trying to change the subject to be about “interfacing” can redeem it.
C++ is a slippery hammer, not because it’s ugly, but because it’s easy to hit yourself in the foot using it.