> Systemd is much more a "Windows" approach to system
> configuration management
I can't see your Windows analogy. The Windows init system compares badly to everything in play here - it doesn't make the system observable or discoverable or give power to the user or do a good job of centralising control.
There would be a comparison to Mac OSX, which has rounded the corners of init with its own approach.
It's also worth mentioning that all mainstream unix (even OpenBSD) deviates from unix philosophy in places. A trivial example - the way that /bin/ls changes behaviour depending on whether it's outputting to stdout or to pipe. If there's a gold standard, it's Plan 9. And almost nobody uses that.
There would be a comparison to Mac OSX, which has rounded the corners of init with its own approach.
It's also worth mentioning that all mainstream unix (even OpenBSD) deviates from unix philosophy in places. A trivial example - the way that /bin/ls changes behaviour depending on whether it's outputting to stdout or to pipe. If there's a gold standard, it's Plan 9. And almost nobody uses that.