Systemd took over a ton of important non-init functionality, like DNS, logging, and interactive sessions. That could be fine if systemd did so in a nice and rock-solid way, but it was unpleasantly bug-ridden for years after being thrust on mainstream distros via a hard Gnome dependency.
SysV-init sucks in many ways, it's well known, and I can personally attest to that. I don't want SysV-init to be perpetuated.
There were, and are, viable alternatives to both, which are a less radical rework of the well-established Unix approaches around the area, do not overreach well past the init system scope, and are sane and well-functioning. For examples, see [upstart], [openrc], [s6], [runit].
I think that the prevalence of systemd was mostly achieved not through its technical merits (which undeniably exist) but through Red Hat's strongarming, because Red Hat wants certain things work in a way convenient for their business, and they have a powerful battering ram under their control, the Gnome DE.
Fortunately Wayland is not being force-fed in such a way, because, much like systemd when it was introduced, it's still in many important regards not exactly ready. I, with my 25 years of running Linux on desktop, will gladly migrate to a better graphics architecture when in becomes adequate for my purposes, if the whole current Unix architecture is not obsoleted and replaced wholesale by that time.
[upstart]: https://upstart.ubuntu.com/
[openrc]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenRC