I think if you’re at the point of poweruser where you’re deciding an init system, you probably should just try them out in VMs. It doesn’t have to take loads of time. Install an OS, try writing some basic services, try doing some basic config for your use-case.

For the vast majority of users, they’ll never have this problem, because they’ll just use whatever init system comes with their OS. I know some distros give init freedom, but most are locked in to one or another init. The fact that you have this problem suggests that either you’re using the wrong distro and should switch to one that chooses for you (or just pick based on one-line descriptions), or it’d be worth your time to spend a day or two poking around with the init systems under consideration in VMs.

You can just try them out in a VM if you’re interested. Systemd can become quite a deep rabbit hole, but most of the others are quite simple and best learnt by doing.

They talk a bit about their hosting infra here: https://web.archive.org/web/20240105093951/https://annas-blog.org/how-to-run-a-shadow-library.html

Interesting read.

Better software availability/support than BSDs. Refuse to use proprietary software. Plus, there’s a lot of software I use that isn’t available on Windows or macOS. I’ve tried to dual boot Windows for gaming before and I just couldn’t install most of my usual software on Windows.

preparation for systemd compatibility

To be clear, they’re not switching to systemd; they’re just reportedly (I can’t find primary sources on this, only secondary) working on compatibility with programs that expect systemd to be there.