There are a number of projects in that space btw. I'm working on one of them. OS development has picked up considerable interest in the last few years for similar reasoning.
I don't have a comprehensive list, but the #osdev channel on Libera.chat has a lot of very active, very colorful, very smart people all working on their projects. Some hobby, some not. But the Fuchsia devs hang out in there too and are very pleasant and helpful folks.
My project hasn't been announced yet but follows similar design principles to Zircon. I plan to announce sometime in May if all goes well.
