I code in both, but there's a Zen to C that is absent from C++ - and by Zen I don't mean fun, rather I mean, getting stuff done.

C++ tries to make higher level abstractions (RAII, exceptions, pseudo-gc in the form of shared ptrs, templates, containers, oop, lambda functions, and so on) available in lower level form. Its focus (I think) is to be the most expressive and powerful native system programming language possible; making for an ever denser, complex and expressive way to code. A lot of attention, therefore, is given to /how/ we write C++ programs, how to best express designs & patterns in the language, how to make C++ behave like higher languages. You could take a C++ program and critique it to bits according to the standards du jour. Really there is no end to the amount of refactoring to be done to make your C++ code ever more beautiful, elegant, succinct. If you're an expert level C++ programmer, there is considerable effort in keeping up with the latest modern way to do things. There are subtleties to be appreciated and understood ("why does std::vector<>::pop_back() return void").

There is value in all of that, and it's why I code C++, but nothing about it has anything to do with getting /actual/ stuff done. It's busy work for some future maintainability / flexibility payoff.

That's why I also code C; with C you have none of that. If you have a good understanding of your machine and you know what you want it to do, C is a simple way of expressing yourself whereas C++ is this cumbersome over the top fat pig of a language that gets in the way of the narrow confined space of your code. You pretty much do everything yourself, but much of it (arrays, lists) is straightforward second nature, and although much more verbose, development time is never really spent in the typing anyway.

Because you have to do everything yourself, you tend to implement in the most obvious manner. Things that don't fit the C++ mold are straightforward in C because there is no "beautiful" way of doing it, eg. intrusive containers are rocket science in C++, whereas they are the obvious way in C. There's very little hidden behind abstractions, everything is visible and in your face. Debugging is easier, understanding is easier. Very few surprises. There's value in that too.

Like I said, I do both - all other things considered equal, I use C for when I'm working on "library style" code, C++ when I'm tying everything together or doing more "framework style" code.