The most remarkable thing about doing this talk was how many people have told me, either before (on hearing what I was talking about) or after, that they had various strong opinions on the topic, but hadn't spun up systemd on their servers.
The most gratifying was the number of people who said they'd give it a try after the talk.
Was it based on previous software shipped by L.P (pulseaudio was a difficult exercise to say the least) ? or just because of change of decades old SystemV habits that felt heavy and potentially scary ?
I didn't conduct a scientific survey, but I think more the latter than the former; also, a lot of peoples' knowledge has been very much based on the public debate, which tends to the idea systemd offers benefits for desktops. Which may be true, but I see far more benefits for desktops.
The most gratifying was the number of people who said they'd give it a try after the talk.