systemd are not very compatible yet. But it is here to stay and one can hold back their machines for only so much. Inevitably, no matter how much you delay it, you will migrate to operating system versions that support it. So here is the path that I figured out for smooth coexistence until systemd grows on you:
Do most of if not everything that you would try to do with systemd with something like puppet or ansible by applying playbooks locally. Configuration management / orchestration software already knows how to handle systemd and they do it well. Take advantage of that then.
Managing organized complexity 
Behold of Chefs that don’t know how to cook with systemd …