It's just a very loaded opinion, while you pretend it's a universal fact. I have never heard, nor experienced, any seasoned C++ developer claiming that smart pointers is a substitute for garbage collection.

Yes, smart pointers are nice, they alleviate you from a whole lot of manual memory management - but the programming model is still vastly different from what you would do in a traditional GC'ed language(such as Java or C#)

A lot of C++ big names have said that smart pointers are better than garbage collection for handling resources. And they are, because GC only handles memory.

Having memory leaks in modern C++ is a sign of not keeping up with the established idioms. Saying that experienced C++ programmers are worried about memory leaks is bizarre.

You're talking to someone who says they're an experienced painter. They show you some of their work. You reply "are you sure you're an 'experienced painter'?"

After answering a question during a job interview, the interviewer says 'are you sure you're a "senior programmer?"'

I don't see a problem with either (and heard far worse in my professional life; the best to date would more or less translate to "what are you ? a bunch of fucking monkeys ?").