The redistributable is huge but not required. You can statically link the C runtime. That option has never been available for C#, and IMHO it's the single biggest reason C# failed to replace C++ for Windows client development.

Exactly. The redist is potentially annoying, but for my own projects I tend to statically link almost everything. It's not really a size thing, it's more of a "I don't want to bug my potential users to have to install a bunch of system altering things" viewpoint.