I've been using AutoIt for a couple of decades now, and created hundreds of programs, and my knowledge of C and derivatives could be written on a Napkin, and in all reality has never served me in my use of AutoIt. That said, I have of course benefited from the understanding of C etc by those who have developed and maintain AutoIt.
I mostly came to AutoIt via VB 4, 5 & 6, especially VBA, where I would have created (and still do) lots of VBA macros. I'd dabbled with some C variants etc, but was quite turned off by them, they not matching how my mind works or wants to work. I'd class AutoIt as a bit like VB, but with a lot of the nonsense missing. To this day, despite how experienced I am with VBA, it still regularly gives me grief ... that rarely occurs with AutoIt ... all to do, in my view, with the mentality behind them.
But then I am totally self taught, in the monkey-see monkey-do style of coding, with the ability to analyze enough. I am not well versed on theory and concepts, other than what I have picked up on-the-fly.
Jon & the AutoIt Team, past & present, have liberated many folk like myself, for which I will eternally be grateful.
In my view, AutoIt is the best language for the average person on the street to use, bar none. It is simple enough and plain speaking enough, with a superb Help file, to introduce many to programming, without the requirement to be nerdy etc. Many of course then move onto other languages, but often retain AutoIt in their toolbox.