I was bracing for the proposed replacement being integrated in systemd.

which of them? :)

I was actually looking forward to bus1, such a nice design.

Instead, we are getting varlink it seems. yuk. "json json eggs bacon and json"

It already has one: Varlink ( https://varlink.org/ ). For pretty much the reasons outlined by the topic starter.

systemd-busdd (pronounced, "busted")

Written in Rust with an MIT license for good measure.

I wouldn't hate it. I used to hate systemd, but today it's one of my favorite linux things.

It may soon happen. :)

systemd-bus 2.0