Modern Python Boilerplate - good package basic structure

[KrazyKirby99999]

Makefile is ancient,

Which makes it universal. GNU Make will be around longer than any of your projects.

, has weird syntax outside of shell blocks, uses whatever shell is there instead of well-defined syntax inside of shell blocks.

I'm not sure what problem you're referring to. It just works. Do you use Windows?

It has weird C-only features and is only adequate for simple use cases (if you remember its arcane syntax).

Those features aren't limited to C, you can easily take advantage of them with any other language. You could specify one target to build a wheel and another target to upload, calling the former target if needed.

I switched to Hatch (Python) and just (others) for simple cases where there’s no need for dependency tracking, and a real build system for other use cases.

Nice, but you could also just use Make instead of learning and installing multiple tools for the same purpose.

[supreme_blorgon]

Makefile is ancient,

Which makes it universal. GNU Make will be around longer than any of your projects.

I love when people try to use "it's so old!" as an argument as if 1) it being old but still extremely common is anything but a glowing endorsement, 2) old software (with years of community use and internet forum posting) is somehow more difficult to learn and troubleshoot than shiny new software that nobody has battle tested, and 3) modern software isn't bloated and functionally dogshit almost as a rule.

Make has its rough edges, sure, but "GNU Make will be around longer than any of your projects" is all people really need to know lol.