Readit NewsC is still highly used for low-level system software development: OS stuff like drivers, libraries, compilers, databases, software that runs in specialized small hardware, etc. C++ is for those slightly-higher abstractions that still require a lot of performance, like video-games and some of the former. Some stuff is getting very slowly replaced by Rust, but it will still take a long time for Rust to corrode the C/C++ market share in the lowest level stuff.
(I mean, I don't do it only because of these reasons, I'm a true believer of Open Source, I believe it is the more superior development model for a more civilized age, but it's kinda hard to argue against a paycheck)
The foreign corporation will always be exclusively interested in doing things to me that generate revenue for them.
Man, I love and use Debian, but the thing I hate the most about it are these ancient email-based bug-reporting systems and package trackers, like the ones linked in your message. This shit is ancient, and horrible. Some time ago I reported a Debian bug using a HOWTO (what other distro requires a HOWTO in order to report a bug?) and absolutely lost track of it after my report was submitted: I could just never find my report again. I just gave up reporting Debian bugs. These ancient systems are definitely barring me from making contributions to the Debian project.
The Herculean efforts made by the Asahi community are absolutely incredible and something I thought would not be achievable without support from Apple. I am grateful for their work and their example should definitely be a case to be studied. Not only their work benefited people using their hardware, some of their advancements (e.g., their work in Rust) benefit the ecosystem as a whole.
That said, I wouldn't buy hardware whose manufacturer does not officially support Linux. Unsupported hardware is absolutely not worth the trouble for me. I'll keep using the hardware manufactured by the company that has been responsible for ~10% of the Linux Kernel development over the last 15 years. I don't have to worry about my system not working due to bugs or regressions. Heck, I never even have graphics driver issues.
Also, I've been kinda expecting these Asahi people to eventually be picked by the Big Tech companies and thus stop their work on Asahi in order to prioritize the agendas of the people putting bread on their tables.
Good luck to all the people involved!
To me, Xbox is that video-game you get when you ask for a Playstation and your parents don't understand video-games. Their versioning scheme even helps make sure the parents fail to purchase the latest generation.