I don't understand what you mean. gpgme.m4 gets installed my gpgme and thus the
AM_PATH_GPGME macro is available. There will be no pkg-config support, becuase
cusom config files are more flexible.

Okay, I now see what you mean.
autoconf.sh is a mainatiner tool and not a distribution. If your application
uses gpgme, I suggest to distribute the gpgme.m4 in the m4 directory.

That's the current approach I'm using, but like I said in the first message, it
feels ugly and hackish.

Exactly what do you mean by custom config files being more flexible, anyway? I
don't see anything AM_PATH_GPGME does that can't be done by PKG_CHECK_MODULES as
long as you ship a .pc file.

Please note that I'm not asking that you drop the gpgme-config/AM_PATH_GPGME
method, I'm just asking that you provide the .pc file as an alternative method
for detecting GPGME, because applications that use other build systems such as
CMake cannot make use of autoconf macros.

If you use CMAKE, you need to write your own test. gpgme-config provides all
what you need.

This has been discussed several times, and I don't see a reason to warm up this
discussion again on the BTS.