The big problem with relying on scripting conventions isn't the scripting; it's the lack of a solid foundation to build those scripts from, requiring each scrip

The big problem with relying on scripting conventions isn't the scripting; it's the lack of a solid foundation to build those scripts from, requiring each script to separately implement service management, probably by copy-paste. What systemd gets right on that front is that you do need a daemon, preferably rooted in init, to spawn services so that they run in a clean, consistent environment. Beyond that, systemd's extensive scope creep makes the system less robust and more complex than it could be, compared to predecessors which some of us have been working with over a decade, such as the daemontools family (runit, s6, nosh &c.) of supervision systems.