I'm saying that systemd makes the Linux kernel's feature set and capabilities visibly usable from user-space. For (nearly) the first time, it feels like it matters that I'm using Linux.
Linux is still Linux without systemd, it just doesn't provide as much benefit (aside from device support and compatibility) over, say, FreeBSD without software that takes advantage of its feature set.
I was using some of them, such as kvm for my virtualization and lvm for disk management. But systemd still had a substantial 'oh, wow, Linux lets process management be this easy and powerful?' factor, showing me something new that I hadn't seen in my use of any other system (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Windows, a touch of Mac).
I suspect its not well known because there was no commercial, marketing drive behind them. Nowadays at least one of these seems to be needed to even gain visibility. People don't go search what's cool/good where it is. They wait for HN or some other news website to tell them
Just like the regular news really. Turns out it doesn't work all that great.
Perhaps I'm ignorant and this was always possible.