The Debian init system general resolution returns

How many packages had support for multiple init systems before systemd came along? Do you think that distributions will hesitate to switch over if something better than systemd comes along?

Also, most packages don't even care about init systems. It's mostly daemons and plumbing that depend on it. And even then, upstream isn't prevented from maintaining support for multiple init systems.

Pretty much everyone has the freedom to choose their init system one way or another (even if it means creating your own distro). But given that the whole world+dog is converging on a single solution is pretty impressive by itself and should be welcomed (even if there are some deficiencies).

In my opinion there's so much time wasted on duplicate+boring work in the Linux community. Effort that is better spent creating added value for users. If distros could converge on a subset of solutions (systemd, wayland, btrfs, ... maybe even packaging system if you'll let me dream a bit) a lot of hands would be free to add value to the ecosystem.

I'm not a proponent for any of the above solutions, but as always with change, it's better to embrace and help steer it rather than fight it. Then you'll at least have the opportunity to make it fit whatever it is you want.