I think the fact that the CurseForge malware relies on systemd in order to fully compromise its host speaks to 1) the widespread fucking pandemic of distros that adopt the systemd tech stack, and 2) the importance of a healthy ecosystem of alternative init systems (which systemd destroyed) in limiting the reach of malware. In a world where everyone didn't just use systemd, malware authors would have to put in the extra effort of supporting multiple init systems. Users would also likely have to be manually involved in the process of installing a system service—yeah, it's more work, but at least now you're consciously thinking about what software your machine is configured to run at boot/login.