I've been planning to try out Rust for a side project, and this decision is so principle-of-most-surprise that it's got me reconsidering, wondering what other unpleasant weirdness lurks in the language. Looking down their other options in one of the linked articles, they seem to reject a couple fine ones outright and then went with one I'd have rejected outright as being too hostile to anyone who's not quite familiar with the manual, having memorized exceptions to ordinary behavior like this. I'm struggling to understand why anyone liked this one at all, let alone enough to push it to the top of the pile.
OK, if the exceptions are quite exceptional and hoping, as you note, this doesn't represent a trend, I'll keep it in consideration. Thanks for the insight.
To reinforce what others are saying, this is the only Rust decision that gives me even a moments pause. Everything else is pretty pleasant. Honestly, I hope that this backfires and gets fixed in a future Rust Edition. It's a very silly thing.