Yea, I agree. I love C and was a C purist and flat-out refused to learn C++ well and use it in practice. This recently changed and now I quite enjoy C++. Destructors are one reason why. The whole idea of resource-managing classes and RAII is clever and really useful.
The hard part is that it takes a lot to be a good C++ programmer. C is such a smaller language, you can master a handful of best practices, gain experience, and become a competent C programmer. In contrast, C++ is such a large language you have to be active in learning everything — read Meyers, Modern C++, GoF's Design Patterns, etc. Anything short of this, and you're going to accidentally reinvent the wheel or do something stupid. But still, C++(11) is a terrific language that I'm learning to love.
The hard part is that it takes a lot to be a good C++ programmer. C is such a smaller language, you can master a handful of best practices, gain experience, and become a competent C programmer. In contrast, C++ is such a large language you have to be active in learning everything — read Meyers, Modern C++, GoF's Design Patterns, etc. Anything short of this, and you're going to accidentally reinvent the wheel or do something stupid. But still, C++(11) is a terrific language that I'm learning to love.