The reason eliminating writable /etc is a good thing is that it enables read-only system installs like SteamOS and Fedora Silverblue. Read-only OSes are amazin

The reason eliminating writable /etc is a good thing is that it enables read-only system installs like SteamOS and Fedora Silverblue. Read-only OSes are amazing for stability, reproducibility, and recoverability. I find that if you actually take the time to try to understand what the goals behind systemd features are and read the mailing list discussions, without hopping on the conspiracy train, I find a lot of really good ideas. Sure, systemd has issues, but systemd is similar to Git in that regard. The software has issues, but the foundational concepts are solid. (Tangent: Wayland is also similar. The protocol is fine, but Wayland's issue is that it replaces 90% of the features that users need from X with nothing, and forcing other people to fill in the feature gap they created.)