I can't recommend pijul, but I can recommend keeping an eye on it. Pierre-Étienne Meunier is a ferociously smart guy, and he's convinced me that patches are the correct way to build a VCS, rather than snapshots.

I catch up on a forum a few times a year, asking myself if it's ready for me to switch a repo or two over and see how it goes. So far I have to answer no, but I'm hoping it's just a matter of time.