It would be quite helpful if the Makefile / make implementation would accept a file input with desired packages. Something simple like a text file with one package per line.
Thanks for considering ...
You can transform such a file into the required space-delimited string using
make PACKAGES="$(tr '\n' ' ' < file.txt)"
(edit: reduced for poignancy)
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Thank you for the response. I'm doing something similar with zx but having a terrible time trying to convert the variable into the environment.
It would be instantly solved with the ability for make to handle it instead of having to be overly creative.
I do appreciate your share!
I had to scratch a similar itch a few years ago, and https://johannes.truschnigg.info/code/openwrt_autobuild/ was the result. I've been using it ever since (from 21.02 on). The code is certainly not pretty, but it works. The single-file script requires just Python 3.7 (or newer) with its stdlib, and takes an INI-style configuration file as the build recipe input - maybe it fits your bill! 
Thank you so much @colo I actually have a bash version that runs flawlessly. I've been moving all of my decades of bash to zx (read: nodejs + bash) as I delight in it's usage.
Thank you for sharing your repo, I'll certainly see if it sparks a thought on how I can overcome my current implementation.