Having said that, for me, the elephant-in-the-room question for anyone
who thinks systemd is a good idea is: "why isn't it optional?" - I
thought I'd suit the action to the words, and ask the question on one
of the facebook linux groups.

One of the first responses was: "Because it's a fundamental core
function of the operating system."

Needless to say - after peeling my eyebrows off the ceiling - I
answered this in considerable detail. If the reply is interesting, I'll
pass it on.