The point is that the way of fixing them is to make links to /etc/writable. But the systemd tools modify them by creating a new, temporary file first in the place, and then overwriting the old one with the new. So the patch does the same that was already done for other files: detect if the file is a soft link, and in that case, follow it up to the destination.
The point is that the way of fixing them is to make links to /etc/writable. But the systemd tools modify them by creating a new, temporary file first in the place, and then overwriting the old one with the new. So the patch does the same that was already done for other files: detect if the file is a soft link, and in that case, follow it up to the destination.