Isn't compiling nginx from source just a `./configure; make; make install`? I mean, any developer who has ever used a *nix-like probably knows the classical three-command incantation.
You do need things like build-essential installed (which we'd let them install however they wanted). And a blank ./configure normally complains about missing pcre and maybe gzip (I forget). But we'd just tell them they could install without it (and the error message makes it very clear how to do that (--without-pcre or whatever).
Very sad.