1 - Because for most organization/project, there are constraints with higher priority than the intrinsic qualities of the programming languages. The authors me

1 - Because for most organization/project, there are constraints with higher priority than the intrinsic qualities of the programming languages. The authors mentions specialized talent pool. I think that's a good point, but from my experience, someone capable of writing performance oriented code in C++ should be able to do the same in rust with minimal training time since the execution and memory models are close enough. In this case, i think the ecosystem of libraries and pre existing code would be the main reason to stick with C++. 2 - C++ is evolving pretty fast Much as LLVM/Clang pushed GCC to be a better compiler. I think the pressure from newer languages like rust in having a positive effect on the C++ ecosystem. Especially in term of tooling, syntax and general dev productivity (c++ modules ). Still not at the level of cargo as such, but things are improving. Good for C++, but it also means that as time passes, there are less and less reason to switch to a completely different language and ecosystem. The jury is still out on the "safety" part of C++ and how much safer C++ can get and how would that compare to what rust is providing right now. My bet is that rust will always be preferred for environment where safety the number one concern.