Wait dbus isn't considered modern? What's the alternative these days?

There's not, but it's also a very very old technology - definitely not 'modern' linux.

It has a lot of problems especially with protocol standartization and permissions. You can tell something and you might get something back or you might listen for something and get garbage instead.

The maker of hyprland has shipped an alternative though. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46278857