Fetch evolved after promises had been standarized as the way of doing async, whereas node is older than that. Node originally used callback style for its core A

Fetch evolved after promises had been standarized as the way of doing async, whereas node is older than that. Node originally used callback style for its core API and had another method for making http requests. Since fetch, developed in the browser, OS contributors have filled the void of a promise supporting http requesr library, with packages like axios, and isomorphic-fetch. Only now that the standards have finalized and we have reached consistent browser support has core team has made it a priority to include it in core.