sure, let's stop looking for better ways to do things because this one 30-year old way is capable of being twisted into what you need, no matter what it is.

I get the reverence around make but don't blind yourself to potentially better ways of doing things.

I would even go so far as to say that intentionally avoiding new ways to approach these things will necessarily blind you to better ways once they do come along, and I wonder how many good tools have died because "[x] does all I need." (replace "x" with whatever you like.)