> people were griping about Go's error handling (if err != nil) when Rust is, at best, no better than Go
Have you used Rust in a non-trivial context recently? I have a few minor gripes about Rust's error handling, but Go's error handling isn't even in the same ballpark. Your complaint about the ? operator is moot, because you can easily use "match", "if let", "unwrap_or_else()", etc... to handle the errors in place. ? just gives you the convenience of mapping/propagating an error, which is desirable in some situations.
Have you used Rust in a non-trivial context recently? I have a few minor gripes about Rust's error handling, but Go's error handling isn't even in the same ballpark. Your complaint about the ? operator is moot, because you can easily use "match", "if let", "unwrap_or_else()", etc... to handle the errors in place. ? just gives you the convenience of mapping/propagating an error, which is desirable in some situations.