+1 for not changing the defaults at this time.

I feel this could start a multitude of little holy wars (editor, mta,
etc.) which we don't need right now that the first goal - "Debian, but
without systemd" - is within grasp.

Expert users can adapt from the Debian defaults to do what they need.
I'd find it more valuable to have commonality with Debian here that
sysadmins can automate customisation on both with the least amount of
difference.

Michael