That might be an argument if those C zealots were trying to add their language to a Rust project. Don't play in someone else's back yard and then complain that their are not pampering you enough.
No I wouldn't say that. If Rust or another language eventually proved itself more value than C and things were eventually all rewritten, C would go away.
For that matter the C of Linux 10 years ago was not there to stay either, it has changed and certain features and practices are deprecated and dropped and others adopted. It's not the same C.