You're making a keen assumption here that C programmers use STL. And no sane programmer that I've ever worked with uses STL precisely for this reason :P
I think this sentence is misleading. I've made high performance application with no copy with the STL. Your "sane programmers" are just people who don't want to learn it. Sane programemrs make sure they know the strengh and pitfalls of their tools. They don't avoid tools because they make incorrect assomptions, like you are doing here.