I see very few job postings, and almost all of them are either cryptocurrencies (I don't want to waste my life on this), or "3 years professional Rust development in production" (disqualifies self-learners).
Given that nowadays most applications are not replied, it makes little sense to spend time even browsing the postings.
It doesn't necessarily. Very few jobs postings that require "N years of experience in language A" actually require that. Most will accept N years of total experience and some smaller amount of experience (not necessarily professional) in language A.
Especially if there are other candidates who do have that much experience in a specific language. Even if you are a better candidate overall (whatever that means), you need to pass the resume screening first.
That's why should always try to avoid recruiters and apply direct if possible!
> Especially if there are other candidates who do have that much experience in a specific language.
True. But the context of this discussion is that there are not very many candidates with the (nominally) required experience (i.e. several years of professional Rust experience). And that's often the case as job specs often have unreasonable requirements.