I can't agree more. Linus position here is not dissimilar to CEOs and alike. He's trying to deal with R4L using his (allegedly) 100% technical and 0% political perspective but in this case it simply doesn't work. R4L is a political challange that require political discussions; who decides? what's the bar? who maintains what? etc
By not answering this questions and saying he doesn't want to have anything to do with the arguments, Linus simply decided that he doesn't want to solve the problem that only him can solve. The result is clear: R4L will fail if Linus decides that any maintainer can stop the "cancer" to spread and block Rust changes.
R4L implies that Rust will be present in the kernel and will need to be maintained. If Linus is ok with maintainers that have a deep/fundamental problem maintaining/coordinating the maintenance of Rust code, R4L will never happen.
By not answering this questions and saying he doesn't want to have anything to do with the arguments, Linus simply decided that he doesn't want to solve the problem that only him can solve. The result is clear: R4L will fail if Linus decides that any maintainer can stop the "cancer" to spread and block Rust changes.
R4L implies that Rust will be present in the kernel and will need to be maintained. If Linus is ok with maintainers that have a deep/fundamental problem maintaining/coordinating the maintenance of Rust code, R4L will never happen.