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Maybe so you can deliver precompiled wasm to a browser rather than having to deliver the source and a compiler?

You don't need node to compile WASM or deliver it to the browser, either.

The only reason this "needs" NPM is because it's become convention that all javascript projects need NPM and some related toolchain regardless of their complexity.

No, the convention is that Javascript projects are distributed as source rather than as "binaries" (single minified JS files.) Source code generally needs a build tool. NPM is a build tool.

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