C++ will still be used heavily when Rust is buried 6 feet under and HN moves to the next hype language.
Eh, all these "different string" are different because... Well, they have different requirements. Path is not a normal string, it has platform-dependent implications, String/str are UTF8 strings, the byte-esque string have raw bytes, etc. I know I'm being brief, but I hope the differences I'm trying to illustrate are clear, and why it makes sense for these to be different types.
> arcane borrow checker workarounds
You often end up with these in portable/cross-platform C++ or in performance sensitive C++ code. Also, if you've not burdened yourself with OOP-style thinking and adjust your expectations to the fact you're not writing C++ anymore, but a different language, you'll have an easier time learning Rust. All that said, what you call workarounds is probably idiomatic to Rust developers. And even in the most pathological case of workarounds, the resulting Rust code will be much more succinct than any back-breaking efforts to make C++ readable/correct/performant (two of which you get for free in Rust; sans some complicated domains). Like, as examples: just working with std::variant is a nightmare and requires grotesque constructs with visitors patterns (and often lambdas), std::option is a joke that's marginally better than a raw pointer, etc.
> RefCell complexity,
It's no worse than just working with borrowing, and it's not that often you'd use this anyways.
> massive async cruft
Yes, you have a point here, and everyone's aware of this. And people who have ideas in the community about how it can be addressed can easily participate in the discussion and design process if they desire. Whereas C++ is designed by a committee of people who only barely still use the language in the real world (I know there's exceptions, but alas).
Also, if we got tooth for tooth, C++ has an abundance of more complexity than Rust does, and a lot of it isn't even obviously (hence can be dangerous, or just ruin your day/productivity)
have fun living your life pretending all strings are of the same type. spoiler alert: it's the wrong kind of fun. it's a bit easier if you're from a native English speaking country, but only until you get blown up by utf-8 (if you're lucky) in production.
If you're working on a substantial C++ codebase you probably do, actually.