The "provide value" argument can be used for anything. Modern software politics and foundation sponsorship pressure are so complex that this argument may not even be true.
It may be true in this case, but certainly you have seen corporate bloat being added to "open" source projects before.
> Modern software politics and foundation sponsorship pressure are so complex that this argument may not even be true.
May not, or may yes. As far as I know with my own interactions with the Linux kernel community, is that it's very different from typical "modern software politics", at least different enough that I'd make the claim they're special from the other communities.
If there is any community I'd assume makes most of their choices disregarding politics or pressures and purely on technical measures, it would be the Linux kernel community. With that said, no person nor community is perfect, but unless there is some hard evidence pointing to that the Linux people were forced to accept Rust into the kernel for whatever reason, then at least I'd refrain from believing in such theories.
It may be true in this case, but certainly you have seen corporate bloat being added to "open" source projects before.