I do miss several of the things you list, too, especially (safe) self-referential data structures. But Rust is a fantastic compromise solution if your number one priority is to match the performance (or rather, performance possibilities) of C and C++, and have memory safety while doing it. If your number one goal is to be able to write memory safe ideomatic code that is entirely comparable to those languages, and then add some functional programming and lots of quality of life stuff to that, then it's pretty sweet.

In other words: Don't think of it as rivalling the entry cost of Python or Java, or the expressiveness of Haskell or Scala. Try to think of it as a replacement for C++, with memory safety and piles of quality of life improvements. And then with a sprinkle of the other things on top.

I am fine with C++ memory safety if I am mostly working with RAII and explicit move semantics when needed (it is not perfect, but it will get us through the night). However, fighting the borrow checker drastically _decreases_ my quality of life, and I couldn’t find the way to get myself to free flowing code as I had in other languages.

Interestingly, I have the same feeling when trying to write something with Vulkan — the amount of ceremony and boilerplate before you even get to the first triangle is a huge barrier for my productivity. I want something more immediate.