Sure, that's the traditional way of doing things, and I like its simplicity and the fact that the 40 years old core concept is still so useful. But most of us

Sure, that's the traditional way of doing things, and I like its simplicity and the fact that the 40 years old core concept is still so useful. But most of us want to require() modules also in the browser, so you'll anyway need browserify or other bundler, which already have cross-platform watch mode & plugin ecosystem, and are expected to be run continously, and suddenly the Makefile feels rather redundant, especially with npm scripting.