Note that an incremental language improvement doesn't mean a small code change. For example, C++'s iterator with two related but technically independent pointers is a PITA for alias analysis, which is a problem not only for Circle/Safe C++ but for WG21 Profiles too (https://www.circle-lang.org/draft-profiles.html). An incremental language change would be to adopt a Rust-like iterator. That would be a small language change, but a migration away from begin/end would be a massive churn for C++ codebases that sounds more ridiculous than rewriting in Rust.

Bjarne still sees C++'s safety problem as lack of adoption of Modern C++. WG21 is catering to C++ users who will not make such changes.

WG21 has firmly rejected everything resembling Rust's borrow checking (a solution that now has a decade of proven track record, and has been demonstrated to be possible in C++ via Circle/Safe C++). Addition of "pervasive annotations" is so unacceptable to WG21's view of C++ that they're still insisting on Profiles.