I also haven't been using babel for most node projects; V8 has already implemented most of the major features I'm interested in. I don't mind setting up a buil

I also haven't been using babel for most node projects; V8 has already implemented most of the major features I'm interested in. I don't mind setting up a build tool and configuring everything if the project will be actively maintained or if there's a real need for it, but for smaller projects I think it's better to keep things as simple as possible. It's a huge drag when you later revisit a project and a bunch of dependencies are outdated or broken. One of the holdouts which kept me coming back to babel was JSX, but eventually I learned to love preact and its hyperscript-inspired template function. The code ends up being a bit more verbose but you drastically cut down on dependencies. Babel is still superb if you're targeting a broad range of browsers. Although during development I usually disable babel-loader from Webpack for the improved performance and debugging experience.