Have you even tried modern C++? If no, how can you say that C++98 was peak?

As someone who grew up with modern C++, I can't even imagine going back to C++98 because it feels so incredibly verbose. Just compare how you iterate over a std::map and print its items in C++98 vs C++23:

  // C++98:
  for (std::map<std::string, int>::const_iterator it = m.begin(); it != m.end(); ++it) {
      std::cout << it->first << ": " << it->second << "\n";
  }

  // C++23:
  for (const auto& [key, value] : m) {
      std::print("{}: {}\n", key, value);
  }

Then there are all the features I would miss, for example:

  - auto
  - lambda functions and std::function
  - move semantics
  - std::unique_ptr and, to a lesser extent, std::shared_ptr
  - variadic templates
  - std::filesystem
  - std::chrono
  - std::thread, std::mutex, std::atomic, etc.
  - a well-defined memory model for multi-threaded programs
  - unordered containers
  - structured bindings
  - class template argument deducation
  - std::format
  - std::optional
  - std::variant
  - etc.