Re: Is a modern build system acceptable for older platforms

>
> Makefiles generated by automake are more feature rich in general,
> which is understandable as its the only backend it has to support.

The main problem here - Postrges do not use automake at all!
Postgres it's autoconf + handmade GNU Make files + perl script for
generating old MSVC project from this Makefiles.

"make distcheck"
>

CMake have no this bad concept, in my opinion, if you want to make the
project you should have a full build environment. (but I don't want to
argue about it here)

Also, as I wrote before, CMake it's not equivalent of GNU Make or Autoconf,
many your reasons based on that fact what CMake, is not a build system it's
more like project generation system.
And anyway, you have no option if you want to support Windows without pain
and much more hacks ways.