In truth, that's exactly what it is. My point in writing this wasn't to say "Ooh, look at Rust being so much better". The original PHP is wonderful and there is definitely something lost in a Rust translation. Other things gained as well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This blog post is just a personal journey winding through the thought process it took to replicate that PHP in Rust, something I did because I thought I might learn something.