I resisted Rust for a long time too. I’ve been using C++ since 2002 and always liked it especially with the modern additions. I liked the idea of Rust early on and even tried it in little amounts and it seemed nice enough, but then over time it just felt over complicated for not enough payout.

Until I learned it for real and forced myself to overcome the hurdles. Now I love it and find it hard to go back to C++. Why would I want to use any language that doesn’t prioritise safety!? Yes Rust can be complex, because things that are safe sometimes can’t be proven to be safe, and then you need a mindset shift to structure the code in ways where it can be proven safe (or if you absolutely need, unsafe lets you isolate the bits that you have to prove yourself. Many people think what’s the point of rust if it has unsafe, but they fail to understand that 100% of your code in other languages is in a rust unsafe block, while in rust at least only the smallest surface needed has to be).

Anyway, yeah, I’m a convert. As for your last paragraph, it’s true, memory safety (and concurrency safety etc) does not mean bug free. But it does eliminate one kind of common high impact error.