I love it when I find a project and it's entire build system is just a make file. It usually builds without much drama and anything I need to fix is straight-forward and direct. autoconf is the worst. If software were an eldrich horror it would be autoconf. cmake is a little better. but it still feels like you are trying to change something by telling a person who does not speak your language how to do do it.

While I am sure these advanced build systems bring something to the table. as someone who is more sysadmin than developer, what that thing is, is sometimes hard to see.