> We did not want to spend time maintaining a backward compatible parser or doing code archaeology. So this option was discarded.

Considering all of the effort and hoop-jumping involved in the route that was chosen, perhaps this decision might be worth revisiting.

In hindsight, maintaining a parser might be easier and more maintainable when compared to the current problems that were overcome and the future problems that will arise if/when the systemd libraries decide to change their C API interfaces.

One benefit of a freestanding parser is that it could be made into a reusable library that others can use and help maintain.