FWIW this problem can (sort of) be seen with -current make on netbsd.

MAKE=/usr/bin/make make -e
===> Building for zip-2.3nb3
/usr/bin/make generic CC=gcc CPP="gcc -E"
make: don't know how to make generic. Stop

or 
make MAKE=/usr/bin/make
has the same result.

I suspect something in pkgsrc/mk is the problem, but I don't have time
to dig into that stuff right now.

Feel free to grab the PR if you want.

--sjg