I've been a longtime linux sysadmin (back into the 90's) and have run into similar issues as you. I've never had as many problems with basic system stuff as I have since testing some of the new systemd-defaulting distro's. For instance, the centos/rhel 7 boxes I've tried have erratic problems - sometimes not setting the hostname, sometimes services don't start, sometimes services I've disabled _do_ start. It's making me really think about shifting to FreeBSD (or, god help me back to Solaris).