Good article.

C would probably not have survived unless it had this flexibility.

But its not justa historical thing. Today there are modern platforms like DSPs that have 32bit sized char, because that is the smallest addressable type. These platforms depend on C for tool chains, even if most "portable" C wont run correctly on them. The fact that you can build hardware like that, and not have to invent a new language / dialect to program them is a huge win for the world.

<edit> I didnt see the footnote about DSPs at first read </edit>

C survived because UNIX carried it.