I have a standing policy regarding systemd.
It's fine for my desktop and laptop, it's not fine for my server.
My servers (generally speaking) do one thing and that thing absolutely can't be mucked with, systemd does a lot of what I would consider mucking.. binary complexity and weird integration I seriously dislike.
But it's actually beneficial on a desktop system.
My friends who have learned systemd are basically the same as you- "Eh, it's alright when it works.. and it's where everyone has gone so I guess I'll live with it"
I take exception to that statement entirely, this is open source, the land where you can replace your kernel with a BSD one and continue trucking with GNU ultilities as if nothing happened basically- why do we have to go backwards in usability for someones ego.
(and it's hard for me not to see it as one mans ego given his repeated hostility and arrogance regarding how other people use computers professionally)