Digging into #15240 the lack of the proper logging has been discovered. Fixed by this PR.
UPDATE (inspired by @laanwj's comment): Not being able to create the PID file is fatal now.
Output of bitcoind:
$ src/bitcoind -pid=/run/bitcoind/bitcoind.pid
2019-02-01T23:20:10Z Bitcoin Core version v0.17.99.0-561e375c7 (release build)
2019-02-01T23:20:10Z Assuming ancestors of block 0000000000000037a8cd3e06cd5edbfe9dd1dbcc5dacab279376ef7cfc2b4c75 have valid signatures.
2019-02-01T23:20:10Z Setting nMinimumChainWork=00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000007dbe94253893cbd463
2019-02-01T23:20:10Z Using the 'sse4(1way),sse41(4way),avx2(8way)' SHA256 implementation
2019-02-01T23:20:10Z Using RdRand as an additional entropy source
2019-02-01T23:20:11Z Error: Unable to create the PID file '/run/bitcoind/bitcoind.pid': No such file or directory
Error: Unable to create the PID file '/run/bitcoind/bitcoind.pid': No such file or directory
2019-02-01T23:20:11Z Shutdown: In progress...
2019-02-01T23:20:11Z Shutdown: Unable to remove PID file: File does not exist
2019-02-01T23:20:11Z Shutdown: done
Output of bitcoin-qt:

Notes for reviewers
CreatePidFile()has been moved fromutil/system.cpptoinit.cppfor the following reasons:
- to get the ability to use
InitError() - now
init.cppcontains code of both creating PID file and removing it
- Regarding 0.18 release process: this PR modifies 1 string and introduces 2 new ones.