But it probably is a prerequisite for any project achieving its mission on a large scale. I'd rather have a programming language that makes a big positive impact in the security, reliability, and efficiency of software that lots of people use, than one that's aesthetically pleasing but not widely used.
C and C++ were never sponsored by large companies, and they did just fine. Zig is the same, today. (It has some small sponsors, but nothing like the corporate support of rust.)
