Unless they can get it for free elsewhere. Granted, even in this case, a few will still pay. But probably too few.

Pragmatically speaking, why would a person pay for something if they can get it for free?

I think you're probably correct. However, I say that with some regret: C++ was my first programming language and remains my favorite, and I actually enjoyed doing my own memory management. I suppose my feeling of some regret is probably similar to people who felt they lost something when they no longer wrote in assembly or binary or punch cards.

At least there are a few areas left where you can still do your own memory management.

I disagree. As one of my Computer Science professors put it: "Thanks to computers, we can now make errors faster and with more unjustified confidence than ever before."

Spam/junk mail has always been a problem, but I never would have received 2000+ articles of spam in a week before the invention of our beloved machines.

The fact that you were younger and less jaded then.

The concept that pays the vast majority of software developers, allowing them to eat and purchase bandwidth. They then use their free time to develop free software.