What is the big issue with systemd? I would recommend re-learning somethings.. it seems like any distro worth using in production is using systemd or migrating towards systemd. BSD (which isn't linux) being the exception.
Every DE uses different programs to manage network, so you can not check the same files in order to fix a problem.
And the last problem I had with systemd was wanting to use port 53... you cannot because systemd uses it