This is correct. I post the same thing every time one of these JS dependency hell issues pops up, but it's the case because it's true: The problem is the lack of a standard library. It's not that people don't know how to write a left-pad function, it's that it's dumb to rewrite it in every project and then remember what order you put the arguments in, etc. So people standardize, but they're standardizing on millions of different little packages.

I think the effort that goes into all the JS syntax and module changes would be better put into developing a solid standard library first.

There's a rich standard library, you don't need a package to left-pad.