sd_notify is for additional (useful) functionality, it would work fine without it. You can tell because it works on arch.
But no. Newer versions of systemd have issues, and this was what systemd pushed. Just why do you think all these distros had the sane patch? For fun?
Arch would have ended up with it eventually. It wasn't Arch being prescient, Arch wasn't using the same systend version as Debian Unstable, and other distros bleeding edge branches.