But C didn't have competitors with large standard libraries, so it didn't suffer as much for it.
For example check Turbo Pascal libraries, including Turbo Vision, already on MS-DOS.
C took off thanks to UNIX's adoption, like JavaScript on browsers nowadays, it became the language to use for anyone working on the enterprise on those new shiny UNIX boxes.
In Europe it was just another systems language to choose from, back when CP/M and other 8 / 16 bit systems were common.
Also there were C, Pascal and Modula-2 compilers available for ZX Spectrum.
And on my part tiny of the globe I can guarantee that everyone only cared about x86 Assembly, Turbo Basic and Turbo Pascal, with Clipper for business stuff.
I only got to learn C in 1993, after having been a Turbo Pascal 3, 5.5 and 6.0 user.
I first used C in 1983 on MS-DOS, I didn't use UNIX until a couple of years later. I bought Turbo Pascal 1.0 when it was released but already had a C compiler at that point.
So I got to see the language world in a different way, given the local choice of languages as I mentioned.
EDIT: Reformulated the answer
We only got to buy the compilers that were available on the computer local store, not always 100% original or find some magazine and order international via post.
BBS access was only available to a few fortunate capable of paying the high connection rates and the modem in first place.
We got to do with what was available to us and could afford to pay.
Some of my first Assemblers were taken from the Input magazines and typed in, because there was nothing else.
It wasn't any harder to buy stuff in Western Europe in the early 80s than it was in the US.
Average salary would be around 300 euros when converted for today's currency
We had just gotten out of a dictatorship.