That entire world needs a cargo equivalent.

The one time I needed to compile a rust app, I followed the instructions on their github and it used cargo and it didn't work. Don't remember the issue now, but it instantly gave me the same yuck I get when forced to use pip or npm and it breaks in the same fucking way.

Had better luck compiling maven/gradle apps oh and yes, makefiles worked reliably for me so far.

But this is just a personal anecdote and I rarely have to compile anything myself.