This is not quite true: *-install targets modify staging directory, not the end-user's filesystem (localbase). The actual make install would not show those commands (ir)regardless of their muting.

I still believe that ${MKDIR} should be made an exception to this rule. Forcing it would result in lots of gratuitous changes on the existing ports, and rationale for it to be muted was explained in the past and is supported by many committers.

That should use dot (.), not escaped asterisk (\*). If it occurs in other places, those should be fixed as well.