Agree - and the Linux kernel is extremely fragile because it is full of ad-hoc manual code like that.
Unfortunately, Rust won't be the rescue, because (in the foreseeable future) Rust will only be available in leaf code due to the many hard problems of transitioning from fragile C APIs to something better. Writing drivers in Rust is useful, but limits the scope of how Rust helps.
Many of Rust's advantages at a tiny fraction of the effort could be had easily with a smooth transition path by switching the compiler from C to C++ mode. The fruit hangs so low, it nearly touches the ground, but a silly Linus rejects C++ for the wrong reasons ("to keep the C++ programmers out", wtf).
Every time I work on the Linux kernel source, I'm horrified by how much pain the kernel developers inflict on themselves. Even with C, it would be possible to install a mandatory coding style that is less fragile.
For example, in the aftermath of the Dirty Pipe vulnerability last year, I submitted a patch to make the code less fragile, a coding style that would have prevented the vulnerability: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220225185431.2617232-4-max.ke... - but my patch went nowhere.
