alternate libc's like musl. the eglibc controversy showed this was necessary but poettering initially refused to support a "non-useful libc". his words.
So if systemd refuses to support musl, it's "hindering the spread and innovation in the Linux space", and when they change their mind and work to add support for musl, it's "to embrace and extinguish it".
1. Support musl
2. Become mainstream with musl distros
3. Become dependency in practical terms
4. Then even software optimized for musl-based distros has to deal and support systemd
Nope. It's my view of the situation and I'm confident that will be the case. Not that it's an evil plan. Just a nature taking its course. This is how I see it.
Maybe it isn't as popular as you would have wanted, but I don't think that's the same as claiming it's been hindered by systemd.