> and more "C/D'ish"

This I think is where a lot of the pushback comes from. People say want a new C replacement, but some portion of them look at what that actually means, and find they actually want C with a new feature or two because actually learning something new, even new looking, is work. Rust is not C or C++ with a few new features, it's a new language, and some people really want that, and some people are put off by how different it is.

It's perfectly fine for people to have a preference, but people should be aware of what it is - a preference. It's not some inviolate law that C's syntax and way of doing things is good, and we should make sure a successor follows that. It's importance to distinguish the familiar from the good. C has a huge advantage in that it's familiar, through it's own popularity and history and in those languages that it influenced. That doesn't mean it's inherently better though.

I agree with you that people have a preference. For me it's about enjoying what I am doing, I would rather change my job than write Rust every day, not because it's a bad language or I don't know how to use it but because this style of writing the code is not clean and elegant for me. I would rather write D, just my personal taste.