For people interested in keeping SysV init in Debian and getting the package up to date, I'd like to mention the Debian Init Diversity mailing list: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/pipermail/debian-init-diversity/
Some folks on the list are coordinating to update the SysV init package in Debian and Devuan. This should also benefit downstream distributions such as antiX and MX Linux which use the SysV init package. I am working with a few of the people on the list to try to address and close old bugs filed against the Debian sysvinit-core package. We've gone through around 30 bugs so far, closing, reassigning or fixing the issues. The resulting changes upstream are being applied in the "2.92" git branch of SysV. - Jesse
