It looks like some cool new kids are rediscovering it, after more than a decade of pythonisation and javascriptisation of programming. You can have things that behave like values and actually reside on the stack, you can ask the operating system for more memory and you have static fixed-size memory which is allocated when the program is run. Good old procedures without the distractions of prototypal inheritance, variable hoisting, dynamic typing, coroutines, list comprehensions and lambda callbacks.
It's probably a more relevant tool for a larger class of problems than many people imagine.
There are a large number of "C but better" options, where the direction of "better" varies. Examples would be Go, Zig, Rust, each a different "direction" of better, but generally better.
Anyone thinking of trying this I would advise against going to C directly. The footguns are dangerous enough as it is and are arguably even more dangerous if you're coming from a more modern language that if you came at C directly. You don't need to go this far back in time to have these things.
But I do strongly agree that anyone who has done nothing by dynamic scripting language development should pick up a modern static language and learn how to use it. I consider having at least one of each a basic tool in the well-rounded developer's toolkit. And if you're still running on 200x-era arguments about the advantages and disadvantages of static versus dynamic languages, as many people are, you're going to be pleasantly surprised by the modern static languages.
But you won't be pleasantly surprised by C. Most of the arguments developed for static vs. dynamic in that era were really about dynamic versus C. They all still apply; C qua C has not moved much since then.
(Maybe you could justify C as "closer to the metal" but in the modern era personally I'd recommend just going straight to assembly for orientation and a tour. You don't have to dive super deep into it to get the sense.)
I agree. There’s not a plausible scenario where I’d start a new project in C today. I’d pick one of the alternatives you mentioned if I needed that level of control and compilation to native code. The risk/reward ratio for C over any of those isn’t worth it in any case where I’d need something like it.
It's probably a more relevant tool for a larger class of problems than many people imagine.