Systemd is good init replacement, ok ntp replacement, so-so logging deamon replacement , and shitty DNS resolver replacement.
I like the init part, i could do without everything else.
But the thing I hate the most about it is that if you question any part of it like DNS, you are labeled as a systemd hater.
So I have to find workarounds, like intercepting DNS queries on network level, to fix what used to work before.
And if dnssec ever gets implemented, that wont work either.
Also, dnssec is implemented, and it works.
I wrote whole wall of text but at the end of the day, its not that big of a deal, It's more annoying explaing to customers that they have to talk to their other vendors to fix their configs, so sometimes just network level hack is easier.
[1] In enterprise environment and even some SMB environment its somewhat common (at least here in South EU) that big vendors just drop black boxes to you (usually in a form of vmware image, lately sometimes Docker containers). A lot of them are just stock RH, or Ubuntu with their software. ANd that comes with default fallback to goolge or cloudfalre DNS's
Before systemd, you just needed to set correct DHCP config and it would all just work.
But nowdays distros come with systemd-resolved which usualy has (by deafult) fallback public DNS servers.
That means that boxes suddenly can switch from your DHCP network provided DNS servers (or even static DNS servers) to goolge (or cloudflare,) public DNS server.
Bottom line is, it used to be enough to set DNS server through DHCP (or static ones) that is no longer enough in some situations.
Then, do exactly that? None of the components you're complaining about are mandatory (except for journald, but you can easily forward log messages to a regular syslog daemon).
Often that's not an option and have to create workarounds on network level (for DNS).
Because I might not have a say on what device is running, but if it can't resolve internal systems its my problem.
DNSSEC is going to make my life even more interesting.