The elephant in the room

My first take was similar. However, I can see here how getting into the middle of the debate may do nothing positive and just fan the fire. Regardless of his take, it is just more to argue about. And, given the divide, it would take A LOT of pinning down to prevent endless goalpost moving in the replies.

Linus has a unique super-power. He gets to decide what to merge and what not to (not in a sub-system but in the kernel). In the end, kernel maintainers only authority comes from the fact that Linus takes takes submissions from them.

So, the ultimate statement from Linus will simply be if he merges the Rust changes or not.

If he does, that is not only a VERY strong statement but it destroys the entire argument being leveled against Rust here. Once it is in, it is in. The whole "I need to maintain absolute purity to prevent the cancer" line of reasoning evaporates almost completely.

If Linus rejects it, he has the choice of again making it a very strong statement or of being very clear about the the technical reasons for the rejection. In which case, the whole thing because a technical debate as it should be.

In the end, I think Linus is making the right decision to keep his powder dry for the real strike taken at merge time. I also think this supports his ability to take a hard-line against the "social" side of the issue now and then the technical side of the issue later when he merges the code.