I totally get it. I know the feeling. I have written some complex Makefiles in the past for C projects that looked completely horrid.

For smaller projects I like make and people who work with me and know me always first check Makefile to see what is there and what the project is about. I use it as a launchpad for installing dependencies and things like that.

And it's all about what is appropriate for that project. Something a shell script is better. Sometimes soemthing else. So I completely understand what you are saying.