My take too. (Aside from this being a well-written, clear article, that I think highlighted a fair selection of relevant points; especially the "always use uint8_t instead if int" part).

I don't see rust a "memory safe" language, or a niche one. I have complaints about it etc, but it's overall a fair baseline of reasonable decisions. When I look at C or other languages rust has learned from, I have more "Yikes, that's rough" takes. So... rust as the language of least "fucked up", to use your phrase? Ownership/safety are one part of the picture, but not what defines it for me.