Scons has soooo many problems. You still can't pass in positional linker flags without completely hacking how it calls the linker. :(

Configuration-by-full-language-by-default is IME a relatively big red flag for things like this. Much rather have a limited configuration language, possibly with the option of going full bore if needed.

Case in point, qbs is much more workable. Declarative-glue-predefined-stuff-together most of the way, JavaScript capability if needed.

It's awful. It's not even a build system; it's a framework to make your own custom special snowflake build system that is unique to your project and which contains 1% of the functionality you get for free with cmake.

Take a trivial problem: enabling threading in a cross-platform manner. CMake: "find_package(Threads)" Autotools: "ACX_PTHREAD" SCons: Write it yourself.

Now multiply this by every single other detail of your project. It's wheel reinvention writ large, and no one else will have a clue how to build or work on your project.

I liked scons but it is what I would consider a legacy project that I would not introduce in new software or actively switch to.

If you like scons check out meson, which feels similar I think.