If you need callbacks and generics, you're not writing performance code.

99% of code in the wild is comically inefficient and is doing the wrong thing, using way too generic data structures and algorithms for very concrete problems. C++ templates may be one way to make comically slow code faster by spending a lot of compile time. But it's often much quicker to just write straightforward concrete code that the compiler can easily optimize.

IMO C++ makes for slow programs for the sole fact that it compiles so slow (if you use its modern features), so you have much less time to actually iterate and improve.