Well, there is a well defined pattern using configure and make. When very complex builds like GNU Emacs and operating systems have done quite well with this pattern, I wonder what problem we are trying to solve.
That's a very apple to oranges comparison, wouldn't you agree?
GNU autotools assists in making source code packages portable accross Unix-like systems, while make is for build automation and has fine-level dependencies (inter-files).
Nix is a package manager, and though is can build your software for you transparently, it is not tied to and specific software configurationand building toolset, can manage buildtime and runtime dependencies (including downloading the sources), caching build results transparently, etc.
