Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are important differences: D threw away one of the most important features of C/C++ (for the target audience): usability of the language without a garbage collector. Also, Mozilla has much deeper pockets than Digital Mars. Still I agree with you that it is very likely that Rust will follow a parabolic trajectory. The advantages as perceived by the industry compared with C++11/14 will be too few. At the same tim…
Facebook have deep pockets ... Yep, Facebook is using D for some stuff.
What you describe is very different from, say, how Sun pushed Java, or Microsoft pushed C#, or how Apple will likely push Swift, or how a huge portion of the entire software industry pushed C and C++.
Facebook's Hack language is probably a much better example than D is of a language that they're actively supporting. It's a creation of theirs, rather than just a creation of somebody else's that they find useful in some limited cases.