> I genuinely don't understand the NPM world.

You're right, you don't. What you posted is just the function declaration, not the implementation.

I think it reflects how the evolution of the JS ecosystem strongly resembles natural evolution. This package is now a vestigial organ, but there was a time when it served a useful purpose. Other packages formed connective tissue to this package, and since those package may still be useful, this one has stuck around.

Me neither. I can't wait for Deno 1.0 next month.

https://deno.land/

That's just the type definition. Think of it like the .h if you're into that sort of thing.

NPM is the answer to the question: what would happen if everyone refused to use any idioms ever, and instead replace them all with packages?

God help you, if you import a JavaScript (or Rust) package today. Lest you fall in a gaping chasm of endless cascading dependencies.