But surely it's a step towards more safety. Compare to passing char * around or ref/ptr to string.

Sure C++ doesnt have a borrow checker but these types encourage the idea of "reifying" lack of ownership rather than keeping it ad hoc

I have always used Pascal for memory safe strings. Reference counted, mutable xor aliased, bound checked: their safety is perfect.

Unfortunately there is no string view, so you need to copy the substrings or use pointers/indices. I tried to build a string view, but the freepascal compiler is not smart enough to keep a struct of 2 elements in registers.

You don't infer potential ownership from a C++ ref. Likewise for char* strings unless it is to interface with a C api, in which case you will keep it anyway.

Wow. I hadn't read up much on string_view but I guess I assumed it required a shared_ptr to the string. Odd decision not to.

Rust hasn’t "educated people" about "borrowing".

Lifetime management has always been there for any developer dealing with resources in any language. Over the years, languages and specialized extensions and tools have offered different solutions to help with that problem.

What Rust has brought is a system that checks explicit tracking embedded into a mainstream language.