Yes, and now compare to what happened. You could differentiate between words and actions and what exactly was affected. For someone to "sabotage the Rust experiment in the kernel" you would need to determinate that that person did something that a) effectively damaged / obstructed the project (which - if GP is right about that that person has no power to stop the merging of the patch anyway - is a dubious claim), etc.
Misrepresenting the voicing of opposition to some process as "sabotage" seems completely out of line for a any kind of community project. If you define things so loosely, then every side in any disagreement could always label the other side of doing "sabotage". This reflects the sentiment of many Rust people to "be on the right side of history" where everybody else automatically is wrong and even voicing objects and criticism is already "sabotaging" on the true path.
Misrepresenting the voicing of opposition to some process as "sabotage" seems completely out of line for a any kind of community project. If you define things so loosely, then every side in any disagreement could always label the other side of doing "sabotage". This reflects the sentiment of many Rust people to "be on the right side of history" where everybody else automatically is wrong and even voicing objects and criticism is already "sabotaging" on the true path.