I don't feel the comment was made in an adversarial way. Just pointing out some reasons why Ada didn't become widespread. There are plenty of decent languages with great high-level constructs and features that failed to gain/maintain meaningful industry penetration after C hit the stage. I'd say Ada is just another victim of that success, along with the issues he mentions. It's unfortunate, but that's how it is. Maybe Rust can reach a wider audience in a way Ada was unable to, while providing similar safety guarantees.