Rust is a very different beast indeed. The fun clearly doesn't come from the "flexibility/easiness" of the language (compared to Ruby), but really from the feeling that we're all still discovering a new paradigm, new ways to do things using its various features. Building state machines out of the type system is an example. Rust is still kind of a blank canvas just asking to be painted on.

Yes. I think the biggest thing it has going for it is that it is an advanced language offering superior guarantees, but lacks the smell of academic elitism that Haskell and Scala carry. Its a working mans tool, with a welcoming culture that disapproves of intellectual status games and too much jargon.