The C abstract machine is exactly the important part. There is a difference between saying C is close to "the hardware" and C is close to the C abstract machine. The latter like you described has a few concepts that allow for abstraction and thus portability but obviously they lead to situations where the "maps to the hardware" doesn't seem to hold true.
My gripe is only with people acting like the C abstract machine doesn't exist and C is just syntax sugar for a bit of assembly. It's a bit more involved than that.
> The C abstract machine is exactly the important part. ... My gripe is only with people acting like the C abstract machine doesn't exist and C is just syntax sugar for a bit of assembly. It's a bit more involved than that.
Most people have no understanding of an abstract machine though the very idea of a high-level programming language is based on it.
The C Language Standard itself specifies "Program Execution" only on a "Abstract Machine". Mapping that abstract machine to an ISA/Memory on real hardware is the task of the C compiler. It can do this in any manner as long as the observable behaviour of the program is "as-if" it ran on the abstract machine.
Relevant quote:
A conforming implementation executing a well-formed program shall produce the same observable behavior as one of the possible executions of the corresponding instance of the abstract machine with the same program and the same input.
My gripe is only with people acting like the C abstract machine doesn't exist and C is just syntax sugar for a bit of assembly. It's a bit more involved than that.