The problem with c++ is that it allows people to do whatever they want. Turns out: people are dumb. Rust solved that problem. Nothing more, nothing less.
I heavily disagree. C++ has a lot of problems but it's flexibility is not one of them.
Imo the biggest problem with C++ is that there are a dozens ways of doing the same thing. The std lib is not general and fast enough for everyone. Therefore it's not even "standard" .
I have seen many conferences of a proposed "cpp2" like syntax that breaks abi but imo it's the best way forward.
C++ is technically safe if you follow best practices
Yeah but it's virtually impossible to reliably follow best practices. The compiler won't tell you when you're invoking UB and there is a lot of potential UB in C++.
Sure, but you have to explicitly enable this feature. In c++ you can use the oldest shit from twenty years ago and your compiler happily does its job. All my c++ books are full of "you shouldn’t use xy as it is deemed unsafe now, but of course you still can".
If a "safe C++" proposal truly proposes a safe subset, then yes your C++ code would have to opt-in to doing unsafe things. For the purposes of this discussion of a safe subset ... the point is moot.