Distributors ponder a systemd change

If by "they" you mean downstream distribution package maintainers of systemd you might be right depending on which community you reside in.

If by "they" you mean the upstream systemd community, it follow standard announcement procedure like most project do and that even got picked up and announce here on lwn [1].

Unlike many upstream project there is also always last call [2] open for couple of days before each upcoming release ( encase someone might have missed something or wants to discuss some change before release ) and for some facts ( since some people might find those relevant ) the change was committed in early april and it was Zbyszek that was pushing for this change not Lennart ( but apparently the pattern is blame Lennart or Gnome for all the world problems ).

1. https://lwn.net/Articles/688640/
2. https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2016...