This thing is not even less detailed (the #1 thing that people are complaining), I certainly don't think the R is visible in favicon, at least my logo checks some of these boxes. And, NO one has a problem with cargo. And I definitely know, from the threads, that the “reviewers” are nowhere near to design of any sort. They are just judging it upon the many logos they have seen.
Unfortunately, that’s the reality of doing design work. Or being an expert in any specialized domain— The people you need to convince aren’t versed in your field, so you need to be able to advocate for your work in terms they understand.
Just as a quick Idea. How about this approach?
The used font for the "a" is not the right one but I think by staying in the black/white approach the logo is easier to adapt to different usecases. The outer shape of the R retains the hint to Rust and the "a" (representing the analyzer) operates withing the "R". Another option could be to retain the outer R without the wheel around it.
maybe there's a "a" that doesn't remind of amazon 
I like the concept of Variant 2 - essentially the idea of a magnifying glass or some other kind fo analysis viewpoint as part of the logo.
I'm less a fan of the motor components, those look like the kinds of thing I'd expect say, cranelift to have, rather than an analysis tool
(Crossposting here from the GH Issue: RFC: New LOGO for Rust Analyzer · Issue #13651 · rust-lang/rust-analyzer · GitHub )
Here is my take on a rust-analyzer logo (it's supposed to be like the element radium, which is known for it's luminous properties):
And here is the small version:
If people like this, I can clean it up and vectorize it.
In this GitHub thread there was a great idea by jigypeper, which I polished off a bit, so I'm mirroring it here to give it more eyes:
What I like about this is that while it's clearly distingishuable from the Rust logo it still makes a strong enough reference to communicate the realation to Rust.
This design would generally be a faux-pas; the Rust logo is (initially intended to be) a sprocket (teeth mesh with a drive chain, as on a bike) rather than a gear (teeth mesh with the teeth of another gear).
Interesting, do you have a source for that? I'd always assumed it was a cog.
There was a recent discussion on the Rust logo itself here where the same was stated, but no (external) source could be found too easily. On the other hand, once you know it, it's kind of easy to see the clear resemblance, as pointed out here with a link to a picture of the real-life thing, and I have even found chain rings on Google that looked even more similar to the Rust logo.
Actually, Google did point me to a source easily, see here.
interesting, but what about having an ɑ (single-decker lower-case a) instead of a magnifying glass, where the Rust logo is inside the circle of the ɑ and is distorted to imply it's being magnified? maybe add some specular highlights or other grayed-out text or something behind the Rust logo that is also being magnified?
really quick sketch of another idea, the ring around the R in the Rust logo can be the circle in the a for RA:
Assuming we’re keeping the bike analogy… This looks more like a belt drive, though those use different-looking teeth on the chainring AFAICT; normal bike chains are symmetric / look the same on the inside and outside, so they don’t have these visible notches on the inside that you put into the picture.
dark mode comp:
