> connect it to a popular OLED display?

At least for the ssd1306 and the sh1106 there is in fact a library for it that works well.

I recently started working on a rust-esp32 project because I'm far too lazy to properly deal with json in C. It was basic, some buttons, a display, an encoder, and a web api but it was a breeze. I'd really like to continue on more complex projects in the future. I've somehow avoided writing C++ in an embedded setting and now I'm afraid I might have to go back and learn that rather than continue with Rust.