Many would agree with you. For me, the main selling point is the overall pro/con balance of the language. It's just a nice language overall, especially when you place it only with other languages capable of running fast and low-level code.

I don't see rust and think "I have to write using Safe abstractions, traits etc because they're the rust way". There are many reasons to choose (or not depending on your preferences) rust beyond that. For example: "I am choosing rust here because Python's slow and its module system is a mess" or, "I'm choosing Rust here because its enum and struct syntax is fantastic" or "I'm choosing rust here because I can install the toolchain with a single command, and compile + flash with another without getting frustrated". Or "I'm choosing rust here because it makes it easy to architect complicated programs, and has really nice copmile-time error messages".

Stated another way: > Why use Rust over another language if you’re not using its main features?

It depends on the use case and what language you're comparing it to.