> As far as I know Rust has just two major success stories right now

Here's a bunch more. Dunno what your definition of "major" is though: https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/friends.html

Sure, and that's why I was careful to couch the argument as just some other language that includes C and C++ as options (and truthfully includes others, but few have quite the same compatibility story). At this point if you don't know C++ or Rust, which one will give you the most benefit from learning it is a very open question. I think Rust has advantages over C++ in correctness and safety, but C++ currently offers better paths for understanding and utilizing existing code or getting a job using it (whether that was an initial goal or not). Five years down the line the differences may not be so cut and dry though. C++ will almost definitely still have those advantages, but the gap have have closed somewhat. Or maybe not? It's all up in the air.

Currently C++ still wins over Rust, regarding UI and mobile development, specially in what concerns out-of-box experience.

C++ had the advantage of being immediately adopted by the OS vendors for GUI development, although nowadays, with exception of Windows, its role has changed into just addressing the GPU.

So maybe one day we will get something like shaders, CoreGraphics, DirectX, SurfaceFlinger in Rust, but it will still need a couple of years.

Webrender is already something into this direction.

>but C++ currently offers better paths for understanding and utilizing existing code or getting a job using it

I wouldn't say this is entirely wrong, but proper cross-platform package and test management with Cargo is a reason alone that utilizing existing code is waaay easier in Rust. C++ has more existing code though, so they might hit your niche needs better.

Here something like conan might finally win the hearts of C++ devs, but it is still pretty much in the beginning.

In what concerns Windows development, NuGET and vcpkg are already a big improvement.

NuGet is pretty good, I've only used it with C#/F# though.

Does drop box writing a fs in Rust count as a major success story?

It doesn't count as a major success story I knew about when I was typing that comment.