Indeed, that bug report is an interesting example. I can see both sides failing. 1. It was not a good bug report. 'Do not parse "debug" command line parameter'

Indeed, that bug report is an interesting example. I can see both sides failing. 1. It was not a good bug report. 'Do not parse "debug" command line parameter' is not a bug. The actual bug is "assertion in systemd-journald" which is a clear regression, but independent of kernel parameters. According to comments 17 and 22, it was promptly fixed. 2. According to projects process, discussions about design are to be done on the mailinglist and not in the bug tracker. Most commenters violate this. 3. No systemd dev explained why they parse the debug parameter. 4. Sievers closed the bug report without explicitly acknowledging the assertion problem. 5. The kernel devs (especially Linus) are too hot headed and misread this. Systemd caused and fixed (!) the assertion problem.