... but the time was broken in the GUI. I couldn't set it, nor enable network time, probably due to using a systemd component.

Its not the fault of Cinnamon nor a systemd influence. The package gnome-system-tools* is broken, and this for at least 4 years already. Don't try to use the gui, you can easily make it work on the console.
To be installed: ntpsec, ntpsec-ntpdate and ntpsec-ntpdig. Configuration in /etc/ntpsec/ntp.conf.

* gnome-system-tools is a Debian package w/o systemd dependency. The maintainer got lost somewhere in the Ukrainian planes, and there seems to be no replacement.

The good folks here have been very helpful for this newbie (to Devuan) so far.

First impressions of Devuan are very good. I was unsurprised, (yet still disappointed) that 3rd party repos like ProtonVPN are DOA, since it's built with a hard systemd dependency. It could probably be fixed but that's likely a low priority for them. I went ahead with a manual wireguard setup which they have a decent setup guide for and it worked exactly as on Debian. Hopefully Mozilla's repo works but I haven't tried it yet. (I want a current Firefox, but I refuse to use a Flatpak browser.)

I went with Cinnamon, one of my favorite desktops from the amazing Mint team and it mostly seemed ok but the time was broken in the GUI. I couldn't set it, nor enable network time, probably due to using a systemd component. I don't know if the cinnamon package slipped through the cracks or if systemd is so deeply ingrained that patching it is infeasible for the Devuan team. At any rate, I did more or less fix it by manually installing chrony and configuring NTP that way. GUI remains broken but at least displays the right time as long as I have internet. It does fall back to a bad time without a network but that might be a VM issue.

In any case, I'm really enjoying Devuan so far and look forward to finding out all the little ways I was secretly reliant on systemd's bloated mess. As a Debian user, I deeply value privacy and security and I love that Devuan prioritizes user control and transparency on top of that security-first philosophy.