Then Rust could not be any part of the init executable. A failed allocation would be a kernel panic.

Since 2017 rust has had a way to throw and error and you can handle the error instead of panic.

https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/46865

Couple of other ways to do it too.

That being said if you have to go this route maybe the article is oversimplifying the decision?

Another benefit might be not having to deal with all the baggage std lib brings that you don’t use and all the resultant cves?