This fails to recognize that the smallness of npm modules is intimately related to the proliferation of dependencies. The idea behind the node module-design par

This fails to recognize that the smallness of npm modules is intimately related to the proliferation of dependencies. The idea behind the node module-design paradigm is that packages should be small and many, instead of large and few like (for example) in C++. That makes sense because you only use what you need, but it kind of falls apart because the "small" packages you import carry with them 50 other "small" packages. Also because you lose the shortcut for vetting your dependencies which is to vet the people who wrote them. That's a half-assed approach to vetting code you rely on, but the alternative seems to be to do nothing at all. So these modules are small, but anything that uses them is going to contribute to the proliferation of dependencies just as much as ever.