How practical is just turning off systemd today? I hate it too, but hasn't Red Hat basically strong-armed so many important Linux components into adding a hard-dep on it that your only way of avoiding it is to use a distro purpose-built to (e.g., Devuan)?
Systemd is only really required if you want to run gnome or kde easily. It's not an issue otherwise. Probably more trouble than it's worth to replace it in a distro that uses it by default though!
I don't think as a user you actually can remove systemd at all. Everything is set up to work with it. Removing systemd would be closer to forking the distro and maintaining it yourself. If you wanted to avoid systemd you would have to pick a distro which doesn't use it.
I have to complement your choice of FreeBSD and jails. If I didn’t have a Linux stack, I’d run FreeBSD and jails, too.
I wrote my own kernel modules that do exactly what I need in my stack and use case. No need for complicated SELinux, AppArmor or other solutions. I always roll my own solutions from the ground up (usually in a couple of all-nighters).
I needed around 5 years to slowly move away from Linux, open/-solaris/omnios/smartos was also in my mind, but...well you probably know the sad story behind it.
But FreeBSD really kicks, from firewall to database all the way down, everything FreeBSD ;)
Well illumos is just the kernel and userland (bit like BSD without ports/packets), Omnios is a really clean "server-distribution" with illumos at it's core but well same problem, not enough eye's and hand's (aka packets, documentation etc). I decided, that FreeBSD is the "more worry-free" solution for me...and still happy.
