To which I can reply 'come back in 20 years and tell me about your experience maintaining something based on npm and friends'. At least those old crufty systems

To which I can reply 'come back in 20 years and tell me about your experience maintaining something based on npm and friends'. At least those old crufty systems had the good grace of not having a best-before date measured in weeks. They might lack many other graces but for maintainability there is something to be said for a modicum of temporal stability when it comes to development environments.