Eh, I have no problem with the idea that data structures that work in C are awkward in different paradigms. Many data structures are awkward in functional programming. Lots of things are awkward in C that are easier in other languages.

How times have you used doubly liked lists outside a CS101 programming exercise? Even if you did, it’d usually be trivial to implement an array index version or just use unsafe. Basically it seems you give up almost nothing for memory safety.

For sure, you can avoid awkwardness by not statically verifying memory usage & invariants (c++, etc) or using a GC'd language. Rust's ownership and borrowing rules are limited, but simple enough for someone to internalize them quickly.

There's a pretty vast difference between human simple and computer simple. Rust requires that you prove memory safety, or use unsafe. That's a different problem than just informally ensuring invariants are met.

You could probably pull in more advanced type theory research for more nuanced ownership, but I'd bet the language would be harder to understand overall (Haskell disease).