Yes, it's a critical distinction that's important in many systems domains, but getting some form of ownership policy and method - even if implemented with a GC I think is a step forward in terms of building reliable code.

The thing about it being optional in some languages is that it's an experiment, but one that as a feature it really pays off the more code in the ecosystem is compliant to ownership tracking. For rust, it's the vast majority of it (with opt out explicitly findable..) For languages offering it optionally, it's harder to assemble the full benefit.