I like that the author mentions the STL explicitly. The STL is one of the most beautiful libraries ever written. There are few language libraries that are as clear and well designed as the STL. Alex Stepanov is completely underrated outside the C++ community.
That is pre-C++11 and woefully out of date. To pick out the first two "defects" listed: std::auto_ptr was deprecated in C++11 and removed in C++17, and std::unordered_map was introduced in C++11.
It's kind of frustrating how much vocal (often outraged!) C++ criticism comes from people who haven't seriously used the language in years, if ever. It's just noise.
Like a few days ago I saw a bunch of complaints about how C++14 and beyond were adding so much stuff and it's just bloat or overcomplication. No! Using that stuff makes my life so much easier, whereas C++98 was indeed a miserable nightmare.
