One doesn’t even need to go as far as C++ or Rust… many best in class Mac apps were written in Objective-C (which is notably slower than either) and were plenty responsive on single core PowerPC G3s, G4s, and G5s.
I think a great deal of the issue comes down to bloated frameworks, bad application code, and a prevalent attitude of nonchalance towards optimization that compounds with dev machines being powerful enough to mask most performance problems.