It's not a religion, from my POV at least.

One of the things I try to do with my tech choices is watch my delta from mainstream options, where I expect most development and bug fixes happen. Given that systemd has been adopted by the bigger linux distributions I see more value in using it and have the big vendors fix any problems than trying to use niche solutions.

I m surprised that the author did have systemd hardening suggestions, didn't expect that. I 'm tempted to go back and check them.