[smosher_]

I disagree. If nothing else, there is a lot of precedent for executable code in configuration roles. MTAs, build systems, desktop environments, text editors (vim, emacs, joe, others) and probably a good percentage of the uses of tcl. Problems arising from this don't seem to be universal in any category (except possibly build systems, depending on how you look at it.)

But I have a question: where is this coming from? What makes you think it's "a cause for deep concern?" I would agree it's overkill for most software, but an init system for an operating system like Linux (or configurations for most of the kinds of software mentioned above) is never going to be simple.