C++ is a systems programming language. Just like C, it allows you to do anything you want to do and be as close to the hardware as you want to be. This is completely unnecessary if you want to build something that displays pretty pictures on the screen in a web browser, and you really should not use C++ for a web back end unless you have really hard core performance requirements. But when you need to get close to the hardware and don't want to write assembly, your only real choices are C and C++.

To meet it's design objectives, C++ NEEDS to allow you to do things that are unsafe and it's up to you if you want to use them or not. std::span literally exists only to allow aliasing and the documentation warns you that it's up to you to to ensure that there aren't lifecycle issues. If you want lifecycle managed, don't use std::span, use copies but then you have the performance hit of copies. If you don't want either, use one of the libraries that handle reference counting for you but then you have the overhead of reference counting. If it's important not to have ANY overhead and are certain there are no scope issues, how else would you handle it? The difference between std::span and a raw pointer is mainly a) documentation for programmers reading the code and b) to make it easier for linters to find issues with how std::span is used. Similarly, if you want to capture by reference in a lambda, go right ahead but then ensuring that the underlying objects don't go out of scope is up to you.

Use something like Rust or <insert language de jour here>, and you either have to lobotomize the language and give up the "safety" benefits the proponents talk about. If you don't lobotomize the language you either can't get what you want done or you give up a massive amount of efficiency.

When the rubber actually meets the road, and you try doing things like introducing Rust or <insert language de jour here> to something like drivers for the Linux kernel, you immediately run into serious problems that show you why systems programming languages are needed. See for example the recent discussion about introducing drivers written in Rust into the Linux Kernel.

There are tools to do fairly hard core checking of C++ code and if you really must you can write your own for things specific to your project using the clang libraries which you can call even from python and which do much of the heavy lifting for you. These tools just aren't built into most compilers and aren't required by the standard. They are however part of most serious development workflows. Further, if you actually make the effort to learn the language, code that looks remotely like what is written for the blog post is going to set off your spidey sense in about a millisecond. Nobody said using C++ was easy. The fact that it scares of dilettantes, and that when a dilettante makes it onto the team, their lack of skill is immediately obvious in their code is a feature, not a bug. It ensures that code quality and team quality remains high.

C++ (and C) is designed to solve hard problems or achieve performance you can't with other languages. Hard things are called hard because it's difficult to do them. Otherwise they would be called easy.

If you aren't even willing to read the documentation for std::span or lambda captures or plausibly read them and choose to use them in ways the documentation tells you will cause problems for a blog post, you are just wasting everyone's time.

Note that there is in fact a recommended subset and set of code guidelines of the C++ language that it's suggested be used for new projects. Still under development and heavy revision but already very useful. https://isocpp.github.io/CppCoreGuidelines/CppCoreGuidelines. clang-tidy has options to check for conformance to these and much more. The Core Guidelines aren't going to allow you to start writing production quality C++ in a day or anything like that. There will still be a steep learning curve. But if you setup your linters properly and read the Core Guidelines (and a couple of good C++ books) you won't be quite as bewildered about how to start.