Hum, most systems do not go down that hole at all. Most software stop at most at hierarchical parameters.
For the ones that do go down the hole, you are almost always better on separating them into components, to minimize the ones that need complex configuration, and accelerating the journey of those small pieces. (But yeah, it would be nice to settle on a good workflow description language that isn't a makefile.)
Now, it seems that everybody that is pushing those high-complexity languages wants an infrastructure description language, and just keeps calling it by "configuration language". Since those two problems are completely different, insisting on using the wrong name is quite harmful to the goal.
For the ones that do go down the hole, you are almost always better on separating them into components, to minimize the ones that need complex configuration, and accelerating the journey of those small pieces. (But yeah, it would be nice to settle on a good workflow description language that isn't a makefile.)
Now, it seems that everybody that is pushing those high-complexity languages wants an infrastructure description language, and just keeps calling it by "configuration language". Since those two problems are completely different, insisting on using the wrong name is quite harmful to the goal.