That's not really how it works. Rust's rules for when an object is freed are very simple, basically the same as C++- they don't depend on references or anything

That's not really how it works. Rust's rules for when an object is freed are very simple, basically the same as C++- they don't depend on references or anything. The complicated part is that the compiler makes sure no references to an object exist after this predetermined point in the program.