Comment by ModernMech

I think that's actually where Rust can shine -- it's very good at refactoring, so when you move stuff around and cut things out that you don't need, the compiler tells you exactly how to put everything back together and what exactly needs to be changed. As the codebase grows, refactorability becomes crucial, because refactors are risky and can fail, causing major schedule disruptions. High code velocity achieved early on by ignoring reference lifetimes and borrows and type checking early on might feel good, but these features are a detriment later one when the project needs to start making guarantees.