Unfortunately, this also means that working with any real C++ code base will involve working with code written by people most familiar with a different 20% of the language than you.

I find my time is much better spent writing in a more flexible language that integrates well with C (I like Lua), and saving C for the small parts that actually need it. Also: I can think of few language that have worse object systems than C++. It's not exactly a shining example of OO done right.

Often, an efficiency issue is better remedied by a fundamentally different design, rather than just "pushing harder", and C++ makes it particularly easy to lose sight of this.