I think hiring of devs might be good long term though provided funding is there. There are always areas which might not be something people would work for fun on but which might be important to ecosystem.
These conversations have been going on a long time. This particular iteration of this conversation started before I left Mozilla. It has nothing to do with me personally, regardless of that relationship.
I have long (before, during, and after my employment at Mozilla) have thought that an independent foundation would be excellent for Rust, but am worried about the details. Foundations require active administration, which is even more work. And it's unclear who does that work. I think that we've grown to the point where it very well make sense now, though.