Systemd has gone way and beyond what was supposed to be a replacement for init.rc.
Most important thing... not ALL Linux distros include systemd as the default init system. That's the beauty of Linux (and POSIX in general), you can choose.
They do, they really do 😂. There is this one gal, Melanie, she calls me personally to ask me "how long do you plan on doing this 😒... eventually you're gonna get caught 😒" 🤣🤣🤣. I just say "I have no idea what you're talking about, I just have a lot of relatives in wherever" 🤣🤣🤣.
One thing I've learned over the years dealing with PC tech is that spinning drives is the one thing you absolutely don't buy second hand. Plus, you can't find 4TB or above drives second hand here. People use them till they die or repurpose them.
Second hand PC parts are generally overpriced here. People wanna get like 70, 80% of the price they paid for them. There are some reasonable sellers, but as I said, they usually don't sell drives or sell drives that no one would need anyway (250GB, 500GB, 1TB spinning drives).
Your last suggestion is kinda good to be honest, I might opt for that.
Yeah, well, people are not like that around here. Once you buy something 2nd hand, that's it, you're stuck with it, no refunds, no replacements.