I think that's a mis-diagnosis. Systemd interacts with a many different external components. OK, that means that systemd developers are exposed to a bunch of d

I think that's a mis-diagnosis. Systemd interacts with a many different external components. OK, that means that systemd developers are exposed to a bunch of different components, and work with them frequently. So, they find a pain-point, and they think to themselves "I could improve this." And, because they are competent developers, and it's free/open-source, they do. Sure, the reason the found a pain-point, and chose to contribute is because of their work systemd, but that contribution isn't in-scope for systemd, isn't associated with systemd. It's just them being good citizens and improving the ecosystem. Now, remember that a significant portion of the systemd developers are also kernel developers, and have been since before systemd existed. So it's not unlikely that because of systemd, they see a way that they think the kernel could be improved. And they're contributing to the kernel anyway, so why not? That said, many people object to the kind of design decisions made in systemd, and don't like that that those kind of decisions are spreading to the rest of the ecosystem. This isn't systemd taking over, this is the fact that certain prolific individuals, who are systemd developers, are also contributing to other projects; naturally making the same kind of decisions.