Rust could very much still fizzle, and remain industrially irrelevant indefinitely. Fizzling is objectively guaranteed, by definition, if Rust's adoption rate d

Rust could very much still fizzle, and remain industrially irrelevant indefinitely. Fizzling is objectively guaranteed, by definition, if Rust's adoption rate does not grow by orders of magnitude. All of its ardent fans would surely love for it not to fizzle. But after sufficient adoption not to fizzle, its current user base would represent a decreasing <1% of users. The biggest roadblock to all the changes most needed to prevent fizzling are the most vocal of those same, hoped to be, <1%, who are still 100% of an overwhelmingly smaller number of current adoptees. Many like being different from the hoped-for masses who would need to come on board. They were not put off by what keeps away the still-needed adoptees, and fondly imagine that the language and toolchain can both remain all unchanged and also gain enough traction not to fizzle. But it really is either-or. The current stance of these vocal Rust users is, in effect, to have chosen to fizzle from poor adoption rate. They love to cite self-selected popularity measures that grossly over-count its users and (non-using) fans as proof it already has all the users it will need. The wider world is not fooled. It is hard to see any way around core opposition to necessary change. The absolutely normal fate of any new language is to fizzle, and remain forever resource-starved, offering only niche employment. Even with all the necessary changes, Rust's success is far from guaranteed. It depends on the personal choices of tens and hundreds of thousands of non-users, both those who would need to jump from what they use now, and new programmers-to-be choosing their first language. Their reaction to the changes cannot be predicted with any reliability. All that is certain is that, without, the mass will choose not to adopt. Fizzling is the default fate of any new language, avoided only by ever-readiness and near-miraculous happenstance. It is sad when this fate is deliberately chosen.