[Replying to a more or less random posting of this thread.]

Maybe it helps to look at the actual dependency in virtual/udev-217:

RDEPEND="
	!systemd? ( || ( >=sys-fs/udev-217 >=sys-fs/eudev-2.1.1 ) )
	systemd? ( >=sys-apps/systemd-217:0 )"

IMHO, switching the order within the first (i.e. !systemd) USE
conditional would make a lot of sense. Why should we default to the
systemd udev for users that request USE=-systemd in their flags?

On a personal note, I'm using eudev on my systems and have never
experienced any problems with it. Keep on the good work!

Ulrich