Kernel code shouldn't need a 'good and fast' allocator though, since preferably it shouldn't heap-allocate in the first place, or at least not frequent enough that allocator performance matters.
You’re correct - was just something which is stopping people to try the language. And with that you implicate less users, less matured toolkit etc.
Is there even a plan to make zig memory safe?
As someone who's tried zig and who enjoys c. I highly doubt it would be any more acceptable for people dedicated to working on c than rust or c++ is.