Here, so nobody can force you to use systemd: http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Reasonably we can conclude that we are in fact forced to use systemd.

if you want to use a modern production ready distro for servers you cannot look further than: ubuntu, debian, RHEL/CentOS, and probably SuSE (although declining).

If you're an american company you're very likely using CentOS already and if you're a European company you're very likely using debian already, and there is little wiggle room there.

So, yes, my standards body ensures that systemd is inflicted on my systems and it's a lot more hassle to move away from debian right now than to embrace systemd for all it's warts.

"nice distro you have there, shame if something was to happen to it..."