The statement I was referring to and answering to wasn't in context. It was an absolute statement about the language itself:

Rust is absolutely not faster or easier than C. It’s safer but that’s it.

I am not suggesting that throwing decades old tested and developed code is immediately safer than rewriting it from scratch. Sometimes a rewrite (be it in same language or different) might result in better code, given time. But that is not what I was replying and discussing to.