[gpvos]

Maybe the previous init system was not quite broken, but it had massive drawbacks, and it was not for nothing that many alternatives have sprung up in the last 10-15 years. But most of those tried to limit their scope, while the current winner unfortunately doesn't.

From the little I know, socket activation seems to be systemd's main attractive item.

[vertex-four]

The main issue is that the amount of stuff that systemd does, and the level of integration all the various parts of systemd have with each other across undocumented or unstable APIs, means that it becomes more and more difficult to replace any of it over time - we're tied to systemd as the one true system management suite until somebody can replace all of it, it's very difficult (and decidedly unsupported) to replace it piecemeal.

[jacquesm]

In fact, the only reason systemd can do what it does is because those other systems were modular.

[digi_owl]

And thus if the tradeoff is worth it for you, then you should be free to use it. But do not foist it on the rest of us.