I get your point but also consider that messing around with installing php extensions and using pecl is more of a nuisance than just deploying your node_modules

I get your point but also consider that messing around with installing php extensions and using pecl is more of a nuisance than just deploying your node_modules via something like rsync. The php community solves this by writing polyfill which seems like wasted effort (writing something in php that already exists as a php extension)