Make is the assembly/C language of build system. Lots of other systems just generate makefile compatible files (qmake, cmake, premake, others), but often these fall into overly complex traps trying to explain everything both with simple unique words, and then clashing into these.
Make is very optimal at the stage it is, everything above or below it it's just not that optimal.
Make is very optimal at the stage it is, everything above or below it it's just not that optimal.