I'm not contradicting myself. I can like all the individual pieces of software that comprise systemd while still criticizing the architecture of the project as

I'm not contradicting myself. I can like all the individual pieces of software that comprise systemd while still criticizing the architecture of the project as a whole. I would prefer that systemd be split into different projects. I would still use most of those projects. And I have to disagree with your claim that "systems engineers loath it". There doesn't seem to be overwhelming pushback against systemd from e.g. RedHat's customers. I use systemd myself on servers (I'm a sysadmin/dev for a very small software project - a part-time job), and I have few complaints about it.