Should C++ Give More Priority to Syntax Quality?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’m curious what others here think.

The C++ committee does an incredible job focusing on zero overhead abstractions and performance. But I sometimes feel that syntax quality and aesthetic consistency don’t get the same level of attention.

Recently I’ve noticed more features being proposed or added with syntax that feels… awkward or visually noisy. A few examples:

* `co_await`
* The reflection operator `^^`
* The proposed `e.try?` try operator

And many other similar things. Individually none of these are catastrophic. But collectively, I worry about the long-term impact. C++ is already a dense and complex language. If new features keep introducing unusual tokens or visually jarring constructs there is a risks of becoming harder to reason about at a glance.

Should syntax design be given equal weight alongside performance?

I’d love to hear perspectives from people who follow WG21 discussions more closely. Is this something that’s actively debated? Or is syntax mostly a secondary concern compared to semantics and performance?

Curious to hear what others think.

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