I think a reasonable definition of 'lower-level' is getting the programmer to take over some tasks from the compiler. Mechanically expanding a block of code into intrinsics isn't really that.

What makes 'C' not really low level by a reasonable definition, is that the register allocation decisions are not yet made. Which, depending on how it works out, can effect ordering, inlining, unrolling etc, so the compiler can pretty much go to town on your code and create something unrecognizable.

Since registers aren't really allocated here, this is basically on the level of C code, and all that stuff can happen here, so this really isn't much lower level than C.

Not being elitist, it's just worth knowing what's going on under the hood of compilers, and the nature of the contract they uphold.