Make wasn’t designed to be a task runner. It can be used as one, but it doesn’t make (pun not intended) a very good one, and it doesn’t have the best syntax, either.

Make is an artifact updater. Although it’s not its main focus, Peter Miller’s classical paper ‘Recursive Make Considered Harmful’ does a good job of explaining what it is.

One great benefit of make is that it’s present everywhere, so there’s no additional hassle of installing an extra tool. Depending on the project, this hassle-freeness may or may not outweigh make’s relative incomfort as a task runner.