https://sr.ht/~rne/dram was my first software in D, I don't remember having any issues with the language itself. Documentation (language and stdlib) was mostly ok, same with compiler diagnostics (watch out for long method call chains involving lambdas). I agree with the diagnosis elsewhere in the thread: D is where it is today (IOW, isn't where it could be) because of the Tango/Phobos schism and closed-source license issues from almost twenty years ago.