I maintain a long-term Rust + Node.js project, and the Node side is the painful one.

Node makes backwards-incompatible changes, and doesn’t have anything like the editions to keep old packages working. I can end up with some dependencies working only up to Node vX, and some other deps needing at least Node v(X+1).

People can have various reasons for such look. It can be a symbol of non-conformity.

Official Rust spaces have a code of conduct that is inclusive and forbids discrimination, and this may attract people who otherwise wouldn’t feel comfortable to participate.