The "most loved" statistic (which they have since renamed) counts people who have used Rust before, and want to continue using it. Unless you're suggesting that they're all lying, I don't see how that connects to "regardless of whether they've even used the langauge."

Furthermore, at least in 2023, only ~25% of respondants are under 25. I'm not sure what counts as "younger" to you, but 37% are over 35, so it would seem that the survey skews older, not younger, to me anyway.

EDIT: since you're now flagged into oblivion (I tried to vouch for you but it didn't work), that statistic is what they changed "most loved" from. It counts people who have used Rust before, and want to continue using it.