> The idea that one needs Rust to write reliable software is not only ridiculous at a logical level
I never said that. I said that it's more appropriate and productive.
> If it were really “preferable for writing such production software”, more people would be using it.
There are many valid reasons for not using it, even in new projects. Such as human preferences, lack of specific libraries, and simply not having time to learn yet another language for a non-10x benefit.
> the compiler does not carry the burden for you. It puts the burden of writing code in a way that satisfies the Rust lifetime management design on you, and that’s what you’ll be doing forever.
It carries a different burden for me. In exchange for the burden that you mention, I don't worry about mutable aliasing bugs (including data races), breaking the code by refactoring it, manually unit-testing basic properties that could be types, debugging non-obvious non-local effects (such as exceptions and null values invisibly propagating through the layers of the app), micro-optimizing the performance manually, and so on. The benefits are known. I've almost forgot how to use a debugger at this point.
It's a tradeoff. I find it more comfortable and less cognitively-taxing to work this way, once the initial learning curve is behind. Less unpredictable problems to distract you from solving the problem. The borrow checker problems largely go away as you get more comfortable with it. And it's a skill that's instantly transferrable between all Rust projects, unlike project-specific defensive practices in other languages (the "manual hardening" needed to get decent quality). It's a long-term investment that automates a small, but not insignificant part of your work.
> There zero proof that Rust software is higher quality than equivalent e.g. Swift or Java.
The Google's director of engineering gave a talk saying that their Rust teams are just as productive as their Go teams, while also enjoying "a decreased defect rate over time": https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/1bpwmud/media_lars_be...
> The memory-safety trick only works against C and C++.
That's absolutely true, and that's an important thing to keep in mind when framing discussions about Rust.
