Eh rust still has issues in some domains, e.g., when cyclic data is appropriate

This might be but then again I've been writing Rust for several years and have yet to actually run into this problem. The borrow checker definitely places certain restrictions on what kind of stuff you can do (for good reasons!). Once you know how it works, your brain starts writing the code in advance to fit how the borrow checker likes it and it becomes second nature and a total non issue.

Of course this is part of the reason Rust has a bit of a learning curve, which is fair. But any good sophisticated tool meant for professionals requires proper training and knowledge.