I actually have never tried Rust and probably never will, you lied when you implied I was a fan of the language. I'd probably hate it, in fact.
The idea it's either "Rust or Zig" allows the poorly considered logical jump to Zig. I wouldn't use Rust because it's annoying too, but I also wouldn't choose Zig because I consider part of my professional responsibility to be using...literally any language that has memory safety.
There is no "jump" to Zig, just a rejection of the claim that all low-level languages "in 2022" must be memory safe -- not just Zig, but also Odin and JAI aren't (I think). If you need to do low level programming, the fact is that in 2022 there is no consensus over whether you should do it in a memory safe language.
If you think it's your responsibility to use only memory-safe languages, then if you had to do low-level programming, you'd have few option, and those options have their own downsides. That's just the reality of low level programming in 2022 -- it can often only be done in non-memory-safe languages. I actually do quite a bit of low-level programming, and I consider it my professional responsibility to strive to do that in a language that is explicit and simple; there are no languages, to my knowledge, that meet my requirement and are also memory-safe, so I must compromise on something because I live in the real world.
> That's just the reality of low level programming in 2022 -- it can often only be done in non-memory-safe languages.
That isn't true. You want to use a language that is more "explicit and simple". That's your prerogative, even if I disagree with it. But you do have a choice, and you are explicitly choosing to reject memory safety.
No, you don't always have a choice, because C is the only language available (not counting Assembly) on some platforms, and even where Rust is available it is not always a reasonable option for a host of other reasons.
The idea it's either "Rust or Zig" allows the poorly considered logical jump to Zig. I wouldn't use Rust because it's annoying too, but I also wouldn't choose Zig because I consider part of my professional responsibility to be using...literally any language that has memory safety.