I'm trying not to make this just about dune. Dune is curtainly BETTER than, say Make n friend to newcomers.

But there's a market for programming languages that OCaml is objectively losing. Can we really not agree that the most popular/recommended build tool requiring you to write a lisp to do basic config probably isn't helping draw new user into the fold?

I doesn't have to be cargo. But the more it rhymes with that degree of user experience, the more the "masses" will discover the things that make ocaml great.