"Turns out clear thought in any language is the main thing."
No, the ability to express your thought clearly is the main thing -- and that is why languages matter. If your code is cluttered with pointer-juggling, error-checking conditional statements, and the other hoops C forces you to jump through, then your code is not clear.
Try expressing your code clearly in BF, then get back to me about this "languages don't matter as long as your have clear thought" philosophy.