Systemd does not have to force Wayland as it is already going the other way. Both GNOME and KDE are requiring systemd now.

KDE support doesn't even require Linux, let alone Systemd: https://community.kde.org/FreeBSD/Setup

GNOME, on the other hand, practically wants everything running on the exact same software stack, so it requiring a package means nothing.

This discussion is originally about xfce, which does not require systemd now.

Gnome?