magic()
What's that? It's a function call. What does it do? Anything. Everything. Why does it need a complex grammar? It doesn't. Spend your time thinking about the problem, not the language. What a concept!
Do simple things take many lines of code in C? Yes. If you only have a few data structures and algorithms in your mental toolbox, simple things will take many lines of code in C, or C++, or in any language. Why do people advocate baroque languages by claiming that you cannot do simple things simply except with baroque languages, and then blame people for complicating their programs by using that baroqueness?
Yeah, C++ programmers are feature junkies; the language is designed by a feature junkie and promotes language features as the solution to every problem. If you go against that, you are going against the whole culture.
If PL/I was the fatal disease, C++ is the shambling corpse.