I chest thump because more errors happen at compile time, and fewer at runtime. The tooling is what I would consider basic competency these days. Go has a similar tooling story and, while I do enjoy the language, it doesn't inspire chest thumping.
Why Rust, then? It is not particularly good on this front. Hardly the worst, but is still pretty Mickey Mouse compared to the languages that excel here.
I expect the zealotry/chest thumping is entirely a product of fashion. There are some things about Rust that are truly great, but nobody would go out of their way to mention it if it wasn't what is in style.
At the end of day, people are afraid of functional languages. It doesn't matter how amazing they are if almost everyone is too scared to use them.
But so does, say, ATS and does a better job on the aforementioned merits. But, indeed, it is not in fashion.
> At the end of day, people are afraid of functional languages.
To be fair, they are also afraid of Rust.
Which is to say that he is not actually afraid, it's just a roundabout way to say that the only reason he is on the Rust trumpeting bandwagon is because it what is in fashion.
Compare that with the likes of JS, people learn that in a few weeks bootcamp.
Rust absolutely has hurdles, but you can be largely successful without ever touching them (you can get a surprising amount done without ever worrying about lifetimes).