Yeah I copied CMake's idea of using PyPI and I also use it to distribute some pure Rust CLI tools using Maturin. It works really well. Pip is... well it's about on par with most other package managers, i.e. not great, not terrible, but it has some pretty huge advantages over any other software distribution method on Linux:

* Very likely to be installed already on Linux and probably Mac too.

* Doesn't require root to install. You can even have isolated installs via pyenv.

* I don't have to ask anyone's permission to publish a package.

* I only have to make one package.

If any can think of a better option I'm all ears but until then I'm fairly happy with this hack.