FWIW, I agree with much of what you've said, except the title of your rant (nothing that you are ranting about is specific to any particular tool used in debian/rules), and this item:
> Those who dare to touch upstream sources without need, tend to fall > deeper into that pit. As an example, when there's no install target in > the original Makefile, they patch it. Even if it would be an `install > -m 0755 foo debian/foo/usr/bin/bar' line in debian/rules' install > target. No, they go and patch the Makefile instead, introducing a > great deal of junk into the diff. A "great deal of junk" that they can (and for all you know, already have) trivially send upstream to make the package as a whole better. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. -- see shy jo
