SystemXVI will have systemd unit file compatibility. SystemXVI natively uses an INI-like file format itself.
SystemXVI uses SunRPC for communication. Writing a systemctl wrapper could be as trivial as a shell script.
But until then, the world will continue to run on systemd, because it _works_
The world doesn't run on systemd, and it isn't a "just works" thing in the slightest.
Redhat are betting their particular farm on systemd in RHEL7, and Debian (hence recent Ubuntu releases building to the 16.04 LTS) has adopted the suite.
Is the point you are making above based on the percentage of servers running earlier supported Linux implementations or on the existence of alternatives such as the BSDs?
It's basically their product, so...
> and Debian (hence recent Ubuntu releases building to the 16.04 LTS) has adopted the suite.
I think Ubuntu adopting systemd has less to do with Debian doing so and more to do with Gnome becoming increasingly difficult to package without systemd.