Ive been runing Debian 12 (kde) since bookworm was released and am loving it.
I have recently discovered Devuan which seems to be Debian without systemd - what is the benefit of removing this init system?
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There are some security, privacy and stability advantages of other init systems over systemd. But for most people systemd should be fine.
See here for further info:
https://madaidans-insecurities.github.io/guides/linux-hardening.html#choosing-the-right-distro
https://forums.whonix.org/t/fixing-the-desktop-linux-security-model/9172/2
https://www.unixsheikh.com/articles/systemd-isnt-safe-to-run-anywhere.html
https://unixsheikh.com/articles/the-real-motivation-behind-systemd.html
https://suckless.org/sucks/systemd/
https://without-systemd.org/wiki/index_php/Arguments_against_systemd/
https://nosystemd.org/
Also getting encrypted dns to work with systemd is pretty tough and unreliable in my experience (with debian and opensuse). See here https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/wiki/Installation-linux
His stance on desktop security may be very hard. But his views are not far off from that of other known security researchers like Micay (Copperhead/GrapheneOS), Rutkowska (QubesOS), Matthew Garrett (Red Hat, Canonical), Solar Designer (Openwall) and others. They heavily criticize Linux and *BSDs to make us aware of all its shortcomings.
Maybe these people dont hate systemd but want choices for a more minimal/barebones OS. Not to gatekeep Linux but to install a more energy-efficient, lightweight Linux OS for themselves like many Alpine, Debian and Arch users do. They believe in the KISS principle. The concept that less complexity equals better security ("less is more").