Build fails with configure: error: could not make ./config.status
So finally it works, but I can't say it's solved because I don't have the exact cause of the problem.
It turns out that this could be a PATH related issue. I came across this post that mentions the possibility of a PATH causing problems.
Though I could see nothing related to ruby or java or python on my PATH, I had previously played around with rbenv, jenv, and pyenv. The only thing I currently had was npm-packages on my PATH.
So I just commented out everything related to PATH on my ~/.bash_profile and tried the configure again, and voila!, it works! The config.status file is created, configure --help also displays the help info, etc.
I've yet to figure out what was the offending segment on my PATH. But for the moment, I'm happy that I'm able to start building at the command line again! Hope this helps someone facing similar problems in the future.