I've had far more problems with yarn, which sometimes decides it and it alone not longer has internet access and none of the "fixes" published over the years ha

I've had far more problems with yarn, which sometimes decides it and it alone not longer has internet access and none of the "fixes" published over the years have worked. Instead, you have to just set your timeout really, really high. That's been the only fix for a good while, and it frequently does not work. Older NPM could be a pain but modern NPM is pretty smooth and works just fine.