Yes, he was free to express his bigotry once he stepped down. Before that, Patrick was the leader and he hated non-memory-safe languages. He was not the only one, and that hate got worse after he left.

It's nice you got tacos with Zig's BDFL and I don't categorize you as a "hater". Rather, I think the Rust Core Group altogether was toxic. Unable to see their hate as hate, and having memories largely selective and largely untrustworthy.