We are currently slowly moving closer to a Reduced Command Set (same ideas than hardware RISC) in
order to prepare the usage of simpler commands nearer to the kernel syscalls (system calls).
This explains the increase in verbosity of the scripts.
Of course, this could change brutally anytime, and it heavily depends on our mood.

The binary seed to build a modern elf/linux distribution is absurd and grotesque in complexity and
size. Our own opinion about this: this is probably made on purpose by the "official maintainers" to
reduce significantly the audit capacity of third-parties for reasons which can only be toxic, or
this is some brutal lack of experience and/or skills.

That said, the set of scripts we used to build our current core runtime is in
./files/bootstrap.tar.bz2 
There, you will find which versions of the source packages to retrieve from internet and the various
requirements for a seed build system. 
You need to be warned: the build process of the core runtime of a modern elf/linux distro is the
product of rotten brains (we are at a pathological scale) or scammers. Those people are filthy
toxic, honest or not, be very careful.