If Ubuntu, the most widely used distro, is doing this, it's conceivable that other distros will follow. (Maintainers: "It solved some problems Ubuntu was having, so it will probably solve them for us, too.")
Yea, like when Ubuntu switched from System V init to Upstart. Or when they created Mir to replace X. Or when they created Snap for distro-independent packages. Or when they forked GNOME into Unity.
...man, when did Ubuntu start losing every battle they fought?
When they started slipping ads into aptitude. I think that's when most of us started giving Canonical the side-eye
This sort of crap keeps getting upstreamed into Debian.
Consider devuan for your next machine. I've switched almost all my linux boxes to it, and it's great.
Up voted for Devuan. Getting services to work is a hassle but really easy after using the same template for start/stops.