I'd like to see Runit [1] and S6 [2] get more attention.
Docs and easy-to-apply tutorials would be a godsend in this area. I too really want to replace systemd on Arch. Currently, this is an uphill battle due to so many packages having systemd service files, and the fact that I've never replaced an init system before makes things that much more daunting.
If only there were more information out there, or more ready-made solutions [3], I'm sure there are plenty who would be ready and willing to give this a shot.
2: http://www.skarnet.org/software/s6/
I don't see any plymouth-related services or unit files hardcoded. I do, however, see a NEWS-related entry from the v186 release: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/tree/NEWS#n1775
[plo@plo-air ~]$ systemctl --all | grep plym
plymouth-quit-wait.service masked inactive dead plymouth-quit-wait.service
plymouth-start.service masked inactive dead plymouth-start.service
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daemontools&actio...
I can't imagine what agency with a history of undermining technical standards could possibly be involved.
I'm bothered by seemingly built-in units that have no corresponding unit files, which all default to enabled, including units for bootsplash stuff ("plymouth") that isn't used on arch linux. I'm very annoyed by mounts and such that don't even have units, files or otherwise, such as the "pstore" filesystem or autofs4. I'm super annoyed that since an upgrade half a year ago, the configuration option to disable use of some cgroup controllers was removed, and now any cgroup controllers supported by the kernel are used unconditionally.
I have good reasons for not using some of these things, but even more than that, one of the main reasons I like to use Arch Linux is that I like to add what I need, rather than try to make sense of and clean up the clutter of a typical operating system later. The lack of control and default-everything-on of systemd is really very annoying, and I'm bothered by the strategies mentioned in this article by which systemd makes itself the one and only practical modern init system for linux.