[rq1]

From a PL Theory perspective, Zig is vibe-coded.

Not sure why people use it.

[whytevuhuni]

Pretty much everything except Haskell and the like can be considered as such.

That's because closely following PL theory isn't always the right goal for a language. Ergonomics and pragmatism are far more important.

[rq1]

I wouldn't disaree on the ergonomics: a powerful but unusable tool is... useless!

Though ignoring all the PL lessons for the sake of "pragmatism" is just plain ignorance.

Rust has a quite solid theory backing. Zig has nothing interesting really: it's "vibe coded" by someone who was doing game dev or something like that.