One reason people use distutils is because it can compile Python extension modules. Here's an example from waf that compiles Python extensions without using distutils. The problem of invoking the compiler has been solved by many build systems and is not just a unique and mysterious distutils feature.
https://code.google.com/p/waf/source/browse/#git%2Fdemos%2Fpython _______________________________________________ Distutils-SIG maillist - Distutils-SIG@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/distutils-sig
