As you said, the difference is in the ecosystem of libraries. This is where Java has the edge. It has a more mature ecosystem when it comes to web server backends. This includes the number of frameworks, programmers and information sources.
Unless Rust clearly solves common problems people currently have with Java backends, Java will remain the dominant alternative. I believe this is unlikely, because Rust is mainly designed to overcome common memory problems people have with low level C systems without the overhead of garbage collectors.
It’s more that you can avoid many mistakes by programming defensively and having good discipline. For example, you can avoid many memory allocation if you follow RAII and use smart pointers.
Null references can be avoided by avoiding using null (and prefer using optional where it makes sense).
There’s no shortage of developers with lots of experience in writing Java backends. People know what to do and what to avoid. The pool of available contributors should be larger.
The good thing about Python is that it’s widely used. Easier to find people who can contribute in Python than Rust, which Lemmy is using.
Downside is that Python isn’t ideal for large scale systems. Other languages like Java is better at protecting the programmer against common pitfalls that come when building larger applications. Python is more ideal for smaller scripts.
DK64 is sometimes accused of killing the collectathon genre. While I’m not sure if the accusations are deserved, DK64 was too ambitious with the amount of collectibles and the size of levels for its own good.
It’s still a great game. I think I prefer DK64 over Tooie overall.
I played both in my childhood, and I don’t think I’ve ever returned to Tooie after I beat it first time. It’s a good game, but doesn’t have that same lasting appeal as the first game.
You touched a bit on the why: the game is too ambitious. The levels are too massive and too intertwined. Smaller isolated levels fit the collectathon format better.
I remember having lots of fun with the multiplayer though, so that’s a bonus.
If you want to continue the collectathon journey you should try out Donkey Kong 64. It’s also a game that falls under its own ambitions, but in different ways. Still a good game, but nothing beats Kazooie.
It’s not about elitism. It’s because most developers don’t want to spend that time on the extra maintenance and QA to ensure it’s working flawlessly for the end user.
Most FOSS are just things people initially wanted for themselves, so they developed it in their spare time. Then they thought it might be neat to share the code in case someone else might find use in it, so they uploaded their work to GitHub.
If you want an exe you can always contribute to the project, or at least make a fork.
It’s not if you want to compile for Windows, Linux and Mac at the same time, with x86, x64 and ARM support. Cross compiling can often be a big annoyance to set up.
And this is a Python project. Making stand alone executables for Python projects is rare.
Because making proper executables working on all machines is just extra maintenance work. They probably just wanted to code something and share it to the world without that extra headache.