I could absolutely be atypical; prior to using Go and Rust as my main tools, I primarily wrote Scala, and I'm sure the functional and type-driven approaches have left deep grooves. But that would still be a way of approaching working with Rust, wouldn't it?

None of that is to make a value judgement, just an observation; but I would still argue that the language can be used in a highly productive manner. Nonetheless, it's perfectly reasonable to argue it's not worth adapting to it, especially if Go is already solving your problems and keeping you productive. I switched because Go's design doesn't seem to fit me very well, and I continually tripped on issues that I don't encounter in Rust. (So yes, perhaps I'm quite odd.)

I do understand the want for a Rust-lite; the thought has crossed my mind more than once. So far, Swift seems closest in many ways and may get close once the Linux/cross-platform story starts looking good.