Ah, Fungus - I see your point. Advertising oneself as being able to code C++ could lead to a rather awkward moment so to speak when sat down and asked to code a PC based C++ program, as opposed to a MCU program in C++.
I need to have a good look through now all the library functions that make up the digitalWrites, analogWrites, serial prints etc. Many thanks for all input thus far.
If you're going to be working with other platforms, you might want to get used to direct port access and bit twiddling, but even there, you can write your own wrapper functions (if they don't already exist) if they're fast enough.
This is what I want to achieve - to be able to program an AVR MCU using Atmel Studio for example, in the future - without any mention of Arduino. I almost feel bad saying that - given the platform introduced me so nicely 