I want to make golinux' question from the sticky thread more specific. He asked:

Note that I posted that thread.  I did not write it.  Also . . .
https://dev1galaxy.org/viewtopic.php?pid=31788#p31788

1. It would be a lot of busy work that would serve no functional benefit.  Those files just sit there and afaik do nothing.  IOW the "problem" is in the mind not in reality.

2. Devuan maintainers work on packages that are essential for Devuan to function. You are, of course, welcome to take on such a project if you like.  That's the way free software works. 

Why are systemd files present in Devuan?

But I'm not interested in the binary response. Rather, I'm looking at the different categories of files I can identify on my system, and would like to know why we (or perhaps I should say you Devuan maintainers) can't make them go away.

So, here's my categorization:

1. files under systemd-only directories: /etc/systemd, /lib/systemd, /usr/lib/systemd, /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper-enabled/, /var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-user-enabled/

   1. target.wants directories

   2. .service files

   3. .path files

   4. .timer files

   5. .socket files

   6. .conf files

   7. .target files

   8. .dsh-also files

   9. files with other extensions (e.g. sleep, shutdown or no extension)

2. /usr/bin files:

   • debhelperdh_* files and their man pages.

   • other files in /usr/bin:

     deb-systemd-helper
     deb-systemd-invoke
     xscreensaver-systemd

3. apt daily file for systemd: /usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily

4. lintian tag files for systemd service files <- Ok, I guess I don't want to remove those

5. Empty directories or subdirectories of other systemd-related directories

For each of these categories - why can't we get rid of these files, i.e. avoid them being installed?

PS - I am willing to accept answers such as "do not want to maintain variants of a large number of packages merely for avoiding them installing their own one or two systemd-related files". But then - would it not be possible to hot-patch such packages to drop those files? e.g. based on directory prefix filters?