The complaints about systemd timers seem strange. To me, they're a sysadmin's dream to work with. I can see exactly when the last trigger was, when the next one

The complaints about systemd timers seem strange. To me, they're a sysadmin's dream to work with. I can see exactly when the last trigger was, when the next one will be, and I can test that the unit will work properly when it fires. And I don't have to remember cron syntax. As for them not supporting email, if you really need to you can add an OnFailure= to the service unit to send one.