Sure, that seems syntactically more cumbersome than 'if let Some(foo) = xs.get(n)' or 'xs.get(n).map(|foo| ...)' in Rust, but yes, you can do it. As I said, because both the Rust and Haskell versions are more cumbersome than using the version that raises an exception/panics, both Rust and Haskell's standard libraries choose to give you a syntactically-easier alternative that isn't a total function.

All I'm saying is that Haskell doesn't seem to do anything different here - Rust has incorporated the lessons from Haskell's type system. (As someone who fell in love with Haskell a long time ago but never got to use it professionally, this is basically why I like Rust.) Is there something Haskell does that Rust does not do? I'm not trying to say Haskell is insufficient - I'm just refuting the claim that Rust is insufficient and should act more like Haskell.