It seems to me that it's good to have shim programs that satisfy
dependencies of apps on systemd, each shim performing some systemd
function. Here's why:

Suppose there are 10,000 application programs (apps) for Linux,
and their developers foolishly insert dependencies on systemd.

If Devuan developers write 50 simple shims to fulfill those
dependencies, then Devuan users can run those 10,000 apps
as they are, directly from the Debian repos. And when the
apps are updated, they will still run. The Devuan devs
don't have to deal with those 10,000 updates at all. And
the shim programs only have to be updated when the systemd
API that they are emulating changes.

Now suppose that systemd shims are not used. That means that
all 10,000 apps have to be patched by Devuan developers so they
don't depend on systemd. And all the 10,000 patched apps have to
sit in a Devuan repo that has to be maintained. And every time one
of those 10,000 apps is updated, the Devuan devs have to repatch
it to remove the systemd dependencies and recompile it. The
Devuan devs can request the app devs to remove the systemd
dependencies, but that has a low probability of success,
because the app devs have lemming-consciousness rather than
Unix-consciousness, and think that systemd is fine because
the major distros have adopted it.

So using a relatively small number of shim programs in Devuan
will save an enormous amount of work for the Devuan developers,
which will allow them to use their time for more productive
purposes -- making Devuan more generally useful and attractive,
thereby gaining far more users.

Now I realize that the idea of having those shim programs is
going to make some Devuan people scream, "Unclean! Unclean!".
But the shim programs will be under our control and will
save us a huge amount of constantly ongoing work of updating
apps. And Devuan will succeed with only 25 developers and
administrators instead of needing 500.

So please drop the fear of contamination, and consider the
shims as a simple, inexpensive and effective wall of defense
against systemd.

Mark