Languages are the same. Decisions in the past may be discovered to be incorrect in the future. Some features make the language far easier to work with and built better more stable software.
In Rust there are some big ones. ?, For easier returns from functions when errors are encountered, this simplified my code, made it easier to read. async/await, vastly simplifies Future based code, based on my own experience I believe there was a 30% reduction in code when I converted old hand written Futures to the new model. These are big awesome features in Rust, that most people who use them find to be great improvements for productivity.
Your attempt at an analogy is off, because neither wood nor vinyl are living things. I think if we turn to other engineering fields it’s more obvious. For example, batteries. We’ve had batteries since nearly the time that electricity was discovered. If they did not improve over the years, would we be able to build high-performance log-range cars with them? E-bikes with them?
Or something else, hammers are fine for nailing things, but nail-guns are amazing. Have you ever seen someone lay top nail floors with a nail-gun? I have, and my jaw hit the floor as I watched how fast they were.
I want my languages to be the same. Improve things that make the language better at working in difficult engineering spaces (for us that might be embedded), and improve it to make it more productive so I can build better software faster.