> but the language itself don’t have any notion of lanes or SIMD instructions.
C doesn't need it, you can just call CPU instructions like functions. SIMD is just another kind of CPU instruction, so C supports it. That works in C since you have a direct view of the memory layout. It doesn't work in higher level languages where memory is abstracted away from you, in those you need the higher level concepts you are talking about in order to take advantage of SIMD.
These instructions are ISA specific though; i.e. in C you'd have to implement your solution once using x86 SIMD instructions and once using the AArch64 counterparts. You'd also have to account for different vector lengths. Whereas the Java API does all that for you automatically, e.g. automatically taking advantage of longer vectors when running on AVX512, and shorter ones elsewhere.
I think that's what people consider "better" about the Java approach (at least I do). That's of course not to say that you cannot do all this in C as well, but I think having these capabilities in that portable way available in Java makes SIMD useable for a huge audience for the first time which didn't consider that a realistic option before.
C doesn't need it, you can just call CPU instructions like functions. SIMD is just another kind of CPU instruction, so C supports it. That works in C since you have a direct view of the memory layout. It doesn't work in higher level languages where memory is abstracted away from you, in those you need the higher level concepts you are talking about in order to take advantage of SIMD.