As a user, I couldn't care less. My goal is to build my application in debug mode. If the build system's view of the world is incompatible with the actual world

As a user, I couldn't care less. My goal is to build my application in debug mode. If the build system's view of the world is incompatible with the actual world, is that a failure of the world or the build system? At the end of the day, I still need to get my debug build working...