It is an order of magnitude faster than Python. So it is well suited for performance in many cases.
It is a lot easier to pick up than C/C++. So it is well suited for smaller programs.
I can see Go as a very good middle-ground.
That's why corporations like Google invent "middle-ground" languages.
Go from Google
Java from Oracle
C# from Microsoft
These companies need some performance, but they can't hire enough C/C++/Rust devs (not enough exist). They're flush with JS/Python devs, but those languages are too slow.
So they invent these abominable "middle-level" languages, with their insane bloat.
For myself, I'm not interested in mediocrity to serve corporate interests, so I don't touch them. :p Extremes only: Python and C; Ruby and Rust; JS and C++.
Oracle acquired Java with Sun Microsystems, it was originally designed for embedded systems and the dream of “write once, run everywhere”.
The idea of a “hardware JVM” always fascinated me, I seem to recall some parallax microcontrollers that could run a subset of jvm bytecode back in the 90s, but never actually got to play with them.
I would say, "it is a lot easier to pick up than C++" as the language specification is much smaller. I wouldn't be so sure about the comparison to C, though.
And please don't get me started on writing concurrent code in C.