If I recall correctly, systemd is practically super big brother, rolling EVERYTHING a system needs into one daemon. This can cause a bit of FUD/actual fear as everything from system logging, user access, services are all running under one process, hence crashing the entire system if it goes down.
As for Ubuntu, it's not quite an issue with the software as is the direction Canonical has taken in the past (Mir, their own 'open source license', moving more towards cloud from being "The Linux for Human Beings", installing Amazon Links automatically, harvesting system info, etc). TBH, if you install Ubuntu from the mini iso, you'll be better off.