Moreover, most of Eve's bottleneck isn't single server speed, it's mostly network IO and database queries and latency. The big TiDi skirnishes in particular are slow due to this.
I've no insight into what specifically their bottleneck is. The database doesn't sound like it'd be a factor, though, since the slowdowns are isolated to single nodes handling the area with players and don't effect others.
It doesn't sound like it because you haven't been paying attention. By and large, the TiDi slowdowns are because of network IO (i.e. too many players connected to a single node), but the database causes stutters when large numbers of ships are exploded at once.
DB needs to update inventory, skills, implants, and killboards which requires multiple round trips. Moreover, while these round trips to the DB happen, the core processing threads often end up yielding waiting for the SQL Server instance to respond.
But again, I only mentioned it as part of the problem. The core of the issue is definitely Network IO. Someone activates a module or weapon, you need to send that info to 1-10k players as a packet update. That's the source of delays, not processing speed. Rust won't magically speed that up, the network layer is already written in C.
I've been working in JS, Python, C#, TS, and F# for about ten years. I'd guess F# and TS are tied for me for prototyping speed. I have to wonder how much the "common knowledge" that strongly typed languages are slower for prototyping is driven by unfamiliarity with the tool.
There have been lots of posts here about Rust being not the nirvana it's claimed to be for such projects. This one comes to mind https://loglog.games/blog/leaving-rust-gamedev/
I say this as a big fan of Rust. I use it for CLIs, microservice development and more. The borrow checker, traits, enums, etc. are amazing for maintainability, reliability and speed. Fast iteration where you'll want to completely redo a system at the drop of a hat? Rust is a royal pain in the behind.
Largely, proponents of Rust who push it for game development have their minds stuck in the solutions space and forget about the problem space. The fact that Rust was even proposed to fix Eve here is a huge example of solutions focused thinking (bad bad bad) because is misunderstands that Eve was never bottlenecked on processing speed of its physics or business logic.