Thanks for the links - I'm sticking with Debian for now so I guess I'm using systemd for the foreseeable future there, which I [do|dont] have a problem with. systemd hasn't failed me yet - it really does just make me feel 'weird'.
feeling uneasy about a software decision you didn't make is one of the reason many of us switched from Windows to Linux in the first place. It's a little weird seeing people make the same rationalizations I made with Windows.
Your best bets are probably s6 or nosh. If you want just a service framework without init, then you can look at OpenRC, too.
http://skarnet.org/software/s6/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/Softwar...