Just to pick some nits with those claims… CPUs do have hardware support for functions in the form of a stack and CALL/RET instructions. Functions are a useful abstraction since more or less all software uses them. Functions and functional languages are two related but different things, and the usefulness of functions as an abstraction doesn’t depend on whether functional languages have taken off. And last, I’d say functional languages have gained ground over time, as well as semi-functional languages like, say, Python and JavaScript. Even C++ is gaining more functional language features over time.