He is building a couple of things here. One is a way to package a C++ library and encode the dependencies. It is a subset of other similar tools and can be used

He is building a couple of things here. One is a way to package a C++ library and encode the dependencies. It is a subset of other similar tools and can be used as a bridge. So rather than have CMake load special code to talk to Conan, you can have Conan export a generic description and then CMake reads that description. This approach will let libraries work with multiple different build and/or packaging tools. The other is a 'drop dead simple' build tool. His build tool has these compile flag restrictions. But you could still build with CMake and add all kinds of extra requirements. However, for a library that you want to share, making it simple enough to work with the simple build tool is probably a good idea.