I don’t have a problem with this. I am seeing systemd as a system management layer and as such it makes sense that it should manage as much of the moment-to-moment operation of the system as possible. It seems like a lot of people are upset because it’s a new thing to learn that’s being forced on them by their distro.

I used to feel the same way. I’m only a casual linux user and I didn’t want to climb this particular mountain but having learned just a little about it, created some of my own units and played with the tools the sense of alienation dissipated and I was fairly happy with it.