CMake tackles the unsexy challenge of cataloging every compiler on every platform. If things seem easier in Go, it's in part because Go mostly stays in its sandbox. Where Go interoperates, it's worse than CMake.

For example, Go's build system for C (cgo) is configured by stitching together environment variables and magical comments:

    // #cgo CFLAGS: -DPNG_DEBUG=1
    // #cgo amd64 386 CFLAGS: -DX86=1
    // #cgo LDFLAGS: -lpng
    // #include <png.h>
    import "C"

As bad as CMake is, that is even worse. Imagine making that stuff portable!

CMake has major problems (package management and language, as you say) but I don't know of any other tool that solves the problem that CMake solves.

https://golang.org/cmd/cgo/