> the language and the community have a certain militant attitude associated with them.
I'm not even sure what this means. What do you consider a militant attitude in this context? From what I've seen, most Rust evangelists (at least here) try to explain its benefits while acknowledging cases where it may not provide something better and is instead equivalent but different or slightly worse (it's not like any language can be better in every respect).
> the very limited benefits one would get out of adding a few drops of memory safety into a sea of C, one has to conclude that technical merit alone does not explain this decision.
I don't think that's a valid conclusion, but even if it is, you haven't explained it well enough. You haven't addressed how much more complex Rust is than C no how limited the benefits would be. You've provided a tiny bit more information than "it's not worth it", which I think is far from sufficient to support that position in a discussion that can have as much depth as is easily achieved here.
> In any case, I don't think Linus will write another language rant after he had an epiphany about his "unprofessional" attitude.
It's not like he's stopped calling being stupid for acting stupid or refrained from criticizing technologies he thinks deserves it. There are recent cases (mentioned in this discussion) that outline recent cases where he's done so. I'm not sure why you would assume he's all of a sudden deciding to keep his mouth shut about what would be valid concerns to bring forth if he had them, nothing to do with interpersonal communication problems he's had in the past.
I'm not even sure what this means. What do you consider a militant attitude in this context? From what I've seen, most Rust evangelists (at least here) try to explain its benefits while acknowledging cases where it may not provide something better and is instead equivalent but different or slightly worse (it's not like any language can be better in every respect).
> the very limited benefits one would get out of adding a few drops of memory safety into a sea of C, one has to conclude that technical merit alone does not explain this decision.
I don't think that's a valid conclusion, but even if it is, you haven't explained it well enough. You haven't addressed how much more complex Rust is than C no how limited the benefits would be. You've provided a tiny bit more information than "it's not worth it", which I think is far from sufficient to support that position in a discussion that can have as much depth as is easily achieved here.
> In any case, I don't think Linus will write another language rant after he had an epiphany about his "unprofessional" attitude.
It's not like he's stopped calling being stupid for acting stupid or refrained from criticizing technologies he thinks deserves it. There are recent cases (mentioned in this discussion) that outline recent cases where he's done so. I'm not sure why you would assume he's all of a sudden deciding to keep his mouth shut about what would be valid concerns to bring forth if he had them, nothing to do with interpersonal communication problems he's had in the past.