Amen! Having programmed in C++ for close to 20 years now, I converged to using struct a while ago and yet to run into a case where it would create problems (some conditions apply, see below).

You want to make a part of a struct private?

  /* private */

Need a stronger deterrent?

  /* private, don't touch */

Need to protect against random people? Sure, only then -

  private:

But if you are working in the confines of a smaller team of people who read comments and generally abide by coding conventions that aren't enforced in the code, then it works beautifully and results in a slender and more readable code.