This has nothing to do with anti-cheat. I work on Rust and most servers are hosted by the community and there is a good modding+custom map scene. The game has an anti-cheat because it's a big target for cheaters.
Rust remains maybe the last true community game that's just solid all the way through where the studio is good to its players and doesn't patronize and betray them. I can have the sort of fun I would have had 20 years ago in Rust, and everything else feels like monocultural slop by comparison.
I wish more of my friends wanted to play it, and wish I had more time for it.
Naah, Rust from Steam just doesn't even launch on Linux for me (Mint aka Ubuntu aka Debian). Regardless of "Compatibility" choice of Proton. So there's no opportunity to even choose the server.
You need to run RustClient.exe instead of Rust.exe (default) to skip EAC setup. The only way to do this in the Steam UI is to add it as a non-Steam game.
Actually it kind of works out because cheaters want to play with people who aren't cheating. The few servers that run with anti-cheat disabled would have small communities that aren't attractive to cheaters.
