Why is inetd an anti-pattern? Isn't separating all the work of opening ports and launching daemons into a separate component (so that it's not mixed into every other component) exactly what separation of concerns is all about?
Inetd approach is just fine. Don't listen to to the worshippers of systemd complexity. It's like listening again the guys who insisted that JEE is the future and you are stupid because you prefer simple solutions to simple problems.