My general impression is that it is, for many. Rust definitely has a reputation for being harder to learn than Python, for example, which is what I'm suggestin

My general impression is that it is, for many. Rust definitely has a reputation for being harder to learn than Python, for example, which is what I'm suggesting be fixed for one "step" of Rust. The ownership, borrowing, and lifetimes are a hurdle for someone who is almost certainly not going to be a full-time programmer, but needs to program sometimes, and more than toy programs. I think even Rc might be a barrier, because it looks like more complexity than Pythonistas expect.