It's a monokernel that was already outdated when written, and has basically been hacked to do modern things. When Linus retires, maintaining it is going to get difficult.

Systemd is really common, but not ideal. I'm running it now, and it works fine. But, for how long? The Unix philosophy exists for a reason!

That being said, what you're talking about exists on Linux. You don't have to use packages or package managers. If you have a bespoke, personal system to keep track of the versions and dependencies, the kernel and other low-level components (cue the "if I can interject" meme) can run your pile of naked executables just fine.

The same thing goes for BSD, and GNU Mach once it's ready to "daily drive". And, yes, there are GUI settings managers, although they vary.