This would infect the language ecosystem. People that use Rust are usually using it because they don't want the performance sacrifice that gc or reference count

This would infect the language ecosystem. People that use Rust are usually using it because they don't want the performance sacrifice that gc or reference counting would bring. I am convinced that one of the reasons D did not catch on is because it had gc, an anti feature for the target demographic. You could disable it but it split the community and some of the standard libraries weren't compatible. Moreover, just about every mainstream language has automatic memory management. There are plenty of choices for those that want that, Rust is really the only mainstream choice for its niche so it's for the best to not try to turn it into something else.