Could you please us to this extra complexity you are talking about?
It's an entire middleware layer that sits between userland and the kernel that we did not have before.
The distinction being?
Edit: I'm out of my HN comment quota but kind of glad I am. Because I'm clearly not going to get anything productive from a thread where I wonder aloud why systemd is classified differently and where that distinction lies. When does an init system become middleware "that we didn't have before?" I can think of a few answers but was curious what others think. Fuck me, right?
Instead, ask a question, get snarkily called obtuse and downvoted because we have the misfortune of systemd being the topic of conversation. History shows us you might as well not even participate; if all the people who argued about systemd invested that time into productive activities we'd have warp drive by now. Which would be useful to flee systemd threads.
I swear, systemd is tech's abortion debate.