Systemd is monolithic, and does a lot of things that one
might want to do differently. It follows the footsteps of a similar macOS program, and apparently imports a bit of the general philosophy from Apple: one way to do all the things, dictated by the producer of it.
It's much more than an init system; it obviates a number of other components. This may be a desired quality for some. "Linux monoculture" is a real thing, and systemd makes it seriously more monocultural.
The fact that systemd did not have the highest reliability for years did not help its popularity. It was not entirely gently pushed on everyone by Red Hat, by making Gnome dependent on it.
OTOH the history shows that technically poor, and even terrible, things can get wide enough adoption and stick with us for a long time; X is a good example, SysV init is another.
It's much more than an init system; it obviates a number of other components. This may be a desired quality for some. "Linux monoculture" is a real thing, and systemd makes it seriously more monocultural.
The fact that systemd did not have the highest reliability for years did not help its popularity. It was not entirely gently pushed on everyone by Red Hat, by making Gnome dependent on it.
OTOH the history shows that technically poor, and even terrible, things can get wide enough adoption and stick with us for a long time; X is a good example, SysV init is another.