People often write in higher level languages because they want lots of bad code fast. 

I assume you simply meant programmers who want to churn out something quick prefer high level languages. (Majority of them would never like to write 'bad' code intentionally)

Your second assertion is spot on. If one needs to develop a high performing solution optimized for speed and memory consumption, plus high reliability and if it also needs to be reasonably cross platform, one would gravitate towards C. Add to this the established heritage/ecosystem and the tools, and availability of a (relatively) big pool of programmers, C tends to be a good choice.

The only con is a relatively longer development cycle. (True only for mortals like me though, some people stream out C code faster than i write an email. :-) )