CMake has been around forever and is flexible enough to build really complex software. You just need to pull out enough hair when you want it to do something.
Im really curious as to why arch is always criticized for lack of reliability. Ive set up mine btw a long while ago, update it once a month if I remember and it just works™
Ive used debian previously and every second update left me with fucked up nvidia drivers and needing to boot to shell.