The entire tools infrastructure on FreeBSD ports is a mess compared to
pkgsrc, especially with regard to pkg-config.  And pkgsrc doesn't have
things like "USE= gnomehack".  As a general rule, hacks should be
avoided. ;)

To be fair, I haven't used FreeBSD ports nearly as much as pkgsrc, and
I haven't used it reguarly for a couple years.  However, from a
development standpoint, IMHO the learning curve for pkgsrc isn't
nearly as steep as FreeBSD ports because its design is far more
coherent.  At times I find myself almost forgetting that I'm even
writing a makefile.

Sometimes I wonder why they don't just bite the bullet and adopt
pkgsrc.  The FreeBSD operating system deserves better.

--Blair