Don’t forget that Linux is Unix inspired. And unix were meant to be used on servers and mainframe where root were used by a trained sysadmin. Users were not meant to install applications, and their actions has little impact on the system integrity (if they’re not actively attacking it)
But now with PC, you are root on your local machine, and some abuse that power without even knowing what it entails. You could easily sandbox npm, by creating a user for your js dev persona. But that’s not convenient, so no one does it.
