> It's an ecosystem and cultural problem that npm encourages huge dependency trees

It is an ecosystem and culture that learned nothing from the debacle of left pad. And it is an affliction that many organizations face and it is only going to get worse with the advent of AI assisted coding (and it does not have to be).

There simply arent enough adults in the room with the ability to tell the children (or VC's and business people) NO. And getting an "AI" to say no is next to impossible unless you're probing it on a "social issue".