[virgilp]

What is a "FAST" programming language? It can't be "it's theoretically possible to write the absolute fastest code using this" because then the answer to everything must be assembly.

Look e.g. at Rich Hickey's interviews - when building actual systems, the "theoretically fastest implementation" doesn't even matter that much in practice[1] - actual practical C++ code (written by experts!) can be slower than even Lisp code. I've witnessed this first hand, too; you've witnessed it too - in a micro-benchmark, no less - where Rust surprised you by being significantly faster than 3 state-of-the-art C++ compilers. But instead of concluding that Rust (the language) maybe did something terribly good, you conclude "meh, it's not that the compiler is better, it just got lucky in this case".

[1] I know there are a few domains where this matters (e.g. embedded systems). I'm not saying that "Lisp is better than C++" - I'm saying that your conclusions about Rust are... surprising, at least to me.