> not being able to format output of "list-units" for easy machine readability are close seconds.

Seems like 'systemctl -o json list-units' might be what you want.

As of systemd 252, this is undocumented functionality. -o is only specified for systemctl status.

I noticed that, tried it anyway, and it worked. Would probably be helpful if it was properly documented.

While it's noted that it's undocumented behavior (-o is non-existent in systemctl man page), so it might go away tomorrow, it's not a bad start. However what I want is more like

    systemctl -o json list-units --type=service --state=active

I can add --terse for single line output to prevent adding jq to the pipe for processing that JSON.

Maybe instead of writing a bit better code and actually documenting these options, they can just absorb jq as jsonctl, who knows.

Sorry, I kinda get angry when I encounter shenanigans like undocumented functionality, or hostile-replacing a daemon because they felt like replacing something really working well for the last 20ish years, just for fun, you know.