You know, he didn't say that. He said Red Hat adopted a complex system that solves some problems - implying that they may have some other motivations. If anything, the point seems to be that it is a very complex and unwelcome way to solve some problems - and perhaps unworthy of Linux.
> Systemd also solves the problem of unified ways to start services across many distributions. Packaging things is easier.
> It just seems weird to see so many major distros all decide to accept something so complex
You answered your own question. Distributions adopted it because it solved many problems for them.