Yes. I've used Rust (in a hobby capacity) for a couple years now, I've written a fair amount of C++ and have a clear understanding of how pointers and reference

Yes. I've used Rust (in a hobby capacity) for a couple years now, I've written a fair amount of C++ and have a clear understanding of how pointers and references work, yet these two cases you mention sometimes remain mysterious to me. I've developed an intuition for "how to use them" but I don't always know exactly what they're going to do, because their meaning shifts under my fingers to try and match up with what's most convenient. I've just learned how to fiddle with them until the compiler accepts them. There's a fog over the code when they come into play.