Are they so different that it's justified to have so many different distributions? So far I guess that different package manager are the reason that divides the linux community. One may be on KDE and one on GNOME but they can use each other's packages but usually you are bound to one manager
I've seen that sentiment but I think it's more a matter of people making excuses for Rust and not wanting to admit that it has any shortcomings compared to C++.
It's the same mentality that leads C++ developers to defend things like header files.