Random thought:
I love my 
Linux setup with runit.
It's easy, it works as I expect, I have full control
and is veeery fast.
If you are tired of #systemd, maybe give runit a try. It may not have dependencies but you can write your own run scripts which basically check for another service to be started and if not, simply exit early.
@Anachron
Can't agree more!
I have to admit, right now I'm not administering hundreds of systems — which I suspect is the primary use case where systemd might shine, but I have more than five different machines I use personally more or less daily — some configurations are pretty complex, and I still don't see the point in more than what runit in Void does — just scripts! If you need something like dependencies — make it more complex, but such cases are rare 🤷
I also have 4+ machines running and I barely reach the 3rd dependency level.
I have a few simple script which check if dependencies have started before and iirc the most I have is 3.
So since each level adds 1 second delay it means all my services run within 3 seconds of startup.
But I have thousands and thousands of less lines of codes and much less processes which handle this setup.
I have written a little 100 LOC script to restart gracefully [1/2]
(In reverse order stop and then in correct one Start) and that's all that I was missing.
Due to the simplicity of runit adding a status icon is one sv check away. And its very performant.
In fact its so smooth that I can run a void Linux chroot on my Android with near native speed.
I used systemd before in Arch Linux and also sometimes at work and I cant help but get lost in its complexity.
Debugging #systemd is not trivial. Its hell.
@Anachron
Everyone I know, who had the opportunity to use runit and who was willing to write their own scripts for service startup, loved runit for its simplicity — but that is the problem, not a lot of people have the opportunity, most don't want to switch the distro they might otherwise like just to try a different init system. Too much time and effort went into adopting systemd and switching away from it might require even more.
@m0xee
true words. Honestly, systemd is not even needed for 95% (if not even more) of the setups.
Why everybody had to adopt it is beyond my understanding.
Just look at the issue tracker:
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues
The open "regression" label is at 19. So a once working system is still broken in 19 cases.