I was thinking exactly this as I was reading the message. Linus was the one voice that could probably have prevented systemd from taking control. This comment strikes me as too little, too late. I just hope that the transition back to a saner solution, if it will ever happen, won't be too painful now. Or it could trigger mass migration out from Linux. I, for one, am living happily in BSD land by now.

Because he do not want to get involved with userspace bikesheding (beyond posting rants about insane defaults in his distro of choice).

He sees his domain beginning and ending with the kernel, and that's it.

Sadly certain people below him, that he trust deeply, are not so content (some even support Poettering and crew). And i fear the day he hand off the keys to the kernel to them.