Don't worry, systemd isn't the ONLY reason I won't go back to debian. No reason to deal with dpkg's dependency hell nonsense ever again either.
Slackware's still the best, 34 years later.
Discussion
I only heard about Slackware. Never tried it.
It gets a bad rap from people who either A) don't read the docs, or B) don't know about sbopkg and slackbuilds.org (or other non-official repos).
Slackpkg, the package manager, uses some basic bash scripts to manage packages and importantly does NOT impose 'dependencies.' If you have the libraries for the software to run, you're good. If not, you'll see the compile time or runtime error, and can correct it. There are optional queuefiles that sbopkg can use that will get you the known lists of prerequisite software too, but nothing refuses to install because some package maintainer said so.
Use a .deb or .rpm system long enough and you'll perhaps see why this can matter in the most frustrating ways.
The one downside though is that Slackware is primarily designed with desktops in mind. You CAN install more minimal systems for running servers but this can turn into a bit more of a headache resolving some of the main system libraries depending on what you're running. I usually look to a BSD for such instances rather than put the work in.
It's worth noting Slackware is a benevolent dictatorship, rather than a community project, and it shows in its organization. Longest running distro in existence and our biggest gripe is that Volkerding isn't immortal.
I read some very positive reviews on Distrowatch and what was appreciated there the most is what you mentioned about the dependencies.
Didn't know about the project organization. I guess that's something that should be addressed...
People just like to chant 'democracy good.'
There are worries about dictatoraships, totally valid.
The thing is, when it's FOSS, the downsides are almost nil -- if the dictator is abusive, everyone walks away. Unlike meatspace, there's a good reaction function to keep them in check.
Democracy, meanwhile, has always never been anything other than the second worst form of government, only to tyranny. It's inefficient, and results in the sort of design by committee crap we saw with Debian's sysvinit implementation that made moving to systemd seem remotely palatable in the first place (their scripts were a MESS).
And perhaps it's less democracy per se and more collectivism in this case. Either way, it makes for a problematic system. Executive functions work best when you have a capable and unimpeded executive whose hands are untied. Be it in individual life, in a software project, or a government.
I agree with your point and I never thought that talking about Linux can be so interesting up to a level of societal systems...🤷♂️😁