> This is how you get COM. (which actually slightly pre-dates C++, I think?)

No. C++ is from 1985 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%2B%2B), COM from 1993 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_Object_Model)

COM is actually good though. Or if you want another object system, you can go with GObject, which works fine with Rust, C-+, Python, JavaScript, and tons of other things.