Comment # 12 on bug 1215538 from Dr. Werner Fink

(In reply to Thorsten Kukuk from comment #11)
> For the user creation part I think we should better enhance the
> sysuser-tools script to use the fallbacks in the case systemd fails, too.
> Will try to look at it after my sick leave.

Isn't that what /usr/sbin/sysusers2shadow does in case of missing
/usr/bin/systemd-sysusers? Nevertheless 

The creation of /var/cache/man by systemd-tmpfiles is also a problem if
/usr/bin/systemd-tmpfiles
does not exists