The C/C++ is shipped in the form of well-established libraries like Numpy and PyTorch. Very few end users ever interact with the C/C++ parts, except for specialists with special requirements, and library contributors themselves.
Can you name specific "un-fashionable" AI projects that are dependent on Python code for things that have any significant performance impact, which are seeing significant benefits from Python JIT implementations?
Isn't most of the work in Python AI projects done in C or C++ extensions anyway?