Comment by Rochus

There are approaches with at least partly the same goals as you mentioned, e.g. Zig. Personally I have been working on my own C replacement for some time which meets many of your points (see https://github.com/micron-language/specification); but the syntax is derived from my Oberon+ language, not from C (even if I use C and C++ for decades, I don't think it's a good syntax); it has compile-time execution, inlines and generic modules (no need for macros or a preprocessor); the current version is minimal, but extensions like inheritance, type-bound procedures, Go-like interfaces or the finally clause (for a simple RAII or "deferred" replacement) are already prepared.