Also, while systemd and pulseaudio were heavily pushed by many distros, alsa was and still is an option and systemd alternatives exist for those who care that much.
There's plenty of non-systemd based distros. Yes, they're way less popular, but that's because systemd works and does wonders if you know how to use it, compared to that mess of bash scripts inconsistent in quality and across distro implementations that we had before, so users and developers find value in it.
systemd has certainly made my job as a user, sysadmin and developer a whole lot more pleasant.
If you prefer OpenRC or s6, there's distros for you out there. I won't bother supporting them, but you're free to use them.
Granted, you get outcomes such as [1], but if you're fine with that, the choice is there.
What does that pinephone issue have to do with systemd? Sounds more like a bootloader issue (or if not, the kernel lacking a feature) to me.
Fair. I think many would contest that and say they indeed had issues with PulseAudio itself, not because you're wrong, but because the understanding as to why PA sucked for many is just not there and never was. I feel systemd is in a similar position. It's not poor distro packaging, bur it is rather a fundamental misunderstanding of what systemd even is.
From most of the complaints I've heard, they fundamentally misunderstand what systemd is even trying to do, there are certainly better ways of doing them, but I feel the debate is not even at the level where there's understanding of systemd and critiquing it.
In a sense, OpenRC is not even a direct competitor.
> What does that pinephone issue have to do with systemd? Sounds more like a bootloader issue (or if not, the kernel lacking a feature) to me.
It's not bootloader related or kernel related. There are other distros for the PinePhone, like Mobian, where suspend works properly. The issue is Alpine's init system can't do the job. systemd can.