As someone watching from the sidelines... maybe it's the cynic in me, but I think you're giving too much credit to the "but I don't have safety problems" folk. Judging by how defensive they get, it's just a post-hoc rationalization to why they won't invest time learning it. That's fine but, IMHO, not a marketing problem and just good old resistance to change. There's an endless stream of excuses to choose from, no matter how you pitch Rust to them.

I'm all up for a marketing shift though. I agree Rust is much more than safety and I think graydon2 missed your point there. The fireflower simile is excellent. Plus I've seen lots of people confused about Rust, including here on HN. Those are the people to whom marketing failed and should be targeted better.