For me, Rust has a size issue, its std lib after strip is at least 3x as to libstdc++, and Rust is default to statically link to that lib! When you have a few Rust binaries, the storage space adds up quickly, not a good fit for embedded boards where storage is limited(same problems for Go, by the way).

Why can't Rust have a mode to do what c/c++/etc doing, that is, a reasonably sized standard library to link to? Yes I'm aware of 'how to minimize rust size' and 'prefer-dynamic', still comparing to c/c++, it is so much worse when storage size is a concern.

An increasing amount of AWS EC2 dataplane (Nitro firmware/software) is using Rust.

We hit this issue too, and our solution was to go busybox-style with binaries. One binary that then gets linked to with different names. Solved the problem for us.

Maybe it can. Why don't you propose[0] a list of features that would fit your requirements? You never know!

[0] https://lang-team.rust-lang.org/how_to/nominate.html

Did you try https://github.com/johnthagen/min-sized-rust ?