From the article:
"If you're making the leap from the last LTS version, 14.04, then this latest release will be the first time you encounter systemd. Ubuntu's own effort to build an init system was abandoned several releases ago in favor of what has quickly become the only option in Linux init systems - systemd."
What's your deal? Were you paid to say that? It is not true and the Devuan community is working to ensure that systemd is not the only Linux init system. https://beta.devuan.org/
Maybe you should join a mailing list to keep track of the efforts being made to avoid systemd. dng-request@lists.dyne.org