Just because something is semantically a copy doesn't mean that they will not be optimized out. Take a look at this example: https://godbolt.org/z/roxn43eMc htt

Just because something is semantically a copy doesn't mean that they will not be optimized out. Take a look at this example: https://godbolt.org/z/roxn43eMc https://godbolt.org/z/roxn43eMc While create() semantically copies the struct Foo out to its caller, with optimizations on, the function isn't even invoked, let alone a copy be made. That said, of course sometimes this optimization is missed, or it can't happen for some reason. But my point is just that some Rust code may look copy heavy but is not actually copy heavy.