rust feels like java. casting from useless type ad nauseam. heavy reliance on IDE for all the ergonomic annoyances. cargo downloading the world.
honestly, truly modern C might be what you're looking for.
All author's points are absolutely spot on and articulate everything I feel about the language also. They should rename it to "tar", as in "tar pit".
I'm looking for a language with the performance of C++ and the ease of Python, and I've been constantly told that Rust fits that spec.
I'll look into Zig, but I'm hesitant about using languages that nobody has ever heard of. Especially for a project that I might release as open-source.