I love rust. Yet, I do not understand the hate for C++. I've done a lot of work using C++ and a lot of being able to use the language effectively comes from knowing why things are a certain way. Given its constraints, I think it is a brilliant language and I agree with your view of it.

However, if someone were to ask my advice on which programming language s/he ought to learn, I usually point to python as its easy to begin and unless the goal is to get into game development, financial institutions or something like that, where C++ is the dominant language, I do not recommend it. It takes a lot of time before the complexity begins to disappear from one's mental model of the language. After that point though, one can see why it's a solid language.