Re: "It solves a problem that people have."
My Biggest problem is that it doesn't follow the mantra of everything else on the system: "Do one thing, and do it well"
There isn't really a good way to just use one part of it to solve 'a' problem. This leads to the described issues in being forced into adopting new problems.
One of Linux's best features is that you could always change what you wanted to get what you wanted out of it, and systemd is actively breaking that.
As a user, I just want something that works. As a tinkerer, I want something to play around with. Systemd only "kinda" solves one of those use cases.