I shouldn't have used C++ as the example. Even C would work. I agree with everything you're saying, but the original premise. I think if you put ASM vs C, C++, rust, etc, performance would fall near 50/50.

I'm not the best assembly guy, and I'm not advocating we all write it. But I always felt that the compiler optimization assumption was wrong or weak. Everything would be aligned nicely for my sanity, not performance =]