auto* certainly is a marketing term for that toolchain. It's only automatic in the case where an end-user gets a configure script that was pre-tested on exactly their setup. Everything else falls off the wagon. I use a blend of autoconf/configure-light and imake. It fits peoples expectations of './configure;make;su -c "make install', and when it works without problem everyone is happy.
When it doesn't work people are often surprised, even miffed that I haven't tried it out on their latest OS. The more miffed they are the less likely they are to help me resolve the problems.
And often people suggest replacing it with whatever they are familiar with. I cringe, and think of the endless hours put into resolving problems to date (most of which are introduced by constantly evolving OS'es), and am not too interested in starting from scratch, throwing out all that work.
But with a fresh source tree hope springs eternal :-)