[jpgvm]

This is what I was referring to the knowledge cliff.

Gradle is incomprehensible until it isn't. It has a very steep but short learning curve and understanding is completely binary. It's very unfortunate but it is how it is.

I still take it over the JS stuff but I do acknowledge it's shortcomings. I also don't do Android development so I don't know if it's particularly bad there.

[js2]

The knowledge cliff doesn't end with Gradle because it's infinitely extensible. So you have to understand all the plugins as well. Because there is so much implied magic happening behind the DSL, when it breaks, you don't have a clue why. Reading the documentation is often insufficient, you have to track down the source code for the version of the plugin you're using.

In general, I find DSLs make my life harder, not easier.

Gradle is my least favorite build tool ever. It's just too much magic in too many places.

This is not an endorsement of the JS ecosystem either. It also sucks, but it has wasted less of my time than Gradle (again, in the context of Android).