[IshKebab]

> You can pay for it with added footprint (Java) or with added effort (Rust)

... or runtime errors (C, Zig presumably).

Ok Zig is clearly better than C in that regard but I think it remains to be seen if it is better enough.

> many Rust programs do use GC (that's what Rc/Arc are)

This is not what most people mean when they say GC.

> Why?

Because when we're talking about the memory safety of a language we're talking about the code you write in that language (and excluding explicit opt-in to memory unsafe behaviour, e.g. `unsafe` or Python's `ctypes`).

Saying "Java isn't memory safe because you can call C" is like saying "bicycles can fly because you can put them on a plane".