[lwhyajh]

> pip does this for you though, I'm not sure why most end users need to know "build" or "install" exist.

Because at least at one point in time "build" was marketed as the future, it even appeared in a setuptools warning message. This developer spends several paragraphs on the issue:

https://gregoryszorc.com/blog/2023/10/30/my-user-experience-...

If it is no longer the future, so be it. Pip seemed to force isolated installs by default for a while and then backed off again.

As for the volunteer question: All OSS package managers are maintained by volunteers and I do not know of any other ecosystem that prompted an xkcd comic about the packaging situation.