Zig is what Modula-2 already offered in 1978, Ada in 1983, Object Pascal in 1986, revamped in curly bracket syntax.

We need a little more in 2026, besides compile time execution.

I really wish it had more industry buy-in, in terms of funding and community participation. The language has so much to love about it, and even the typical criticisms - some deserved, some not - can be improved or solved over time because it has solid design and foundation. Like most well-built systems, there's a single person (or few people) with coherent vision driving the development, in contrast to C++ and other "design by committee" style projects.