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Ninja is used because it's simple, multiplatform and very fast. The mainstream alternatives offer at most 2 out of 3.

"it's simple": yep, so much so that you inevitably need a meta-build system. In the context of Chrome, the build system only offers 2 out of 3.

It's by design that you need a meta-build system. Ninja build files were not designed to be written by hand, not even ninja itself has hand written ninja files.

Yes, I understand that it's designed that way.

My point was that, in the context of Chrome using ninja, the claim that "Ninja is used because it's simple, multiplatform and very fast. The mainstream alternatives offer at most 2 out of 3." is a bit odd considering that the decision doesn't seem to be ninja vs mainstream alternatives but rather ninja+gn(or gyp or whatever else) vs alternatives.

Can you elaborate on the difficulty on Windows? If you go to the home page there is a section "Getting Ninja" that links to a page with a zip file... ?

It was too long ago for me to remember specifics. Once ninja was up and running the build process was pleasant.

Yes, ninja is still used.