C was not build by the "greatest pioneers". Just succesful pioneers.

There were far more evolved and elegant languages at the time C was created (and during the time it took for C to rise, even more were made). LISP for one, but also languages with the same performance characteristics and systems programming capabilities as C.

C definitely wasn't seen as a "great language design" -- just a very useful and pragmatic one (e.g see also the classic "Worse is better" essay).