> Is it the Github-ization of package creation and maintenance? Is it the pervasiveness of left-pad style packages? Is it npm's governance? Is it the community's perspective and culture?

A nasty combination of all of those, probably some more.

I was very excited with Node.js when I first heard about it here on HN years ago. I enjoyed watching Dahl's presentation. But as soon as the crowd that went "it's JS, I can document.getElementsByClassName(...), so I can code servers" flocked in and npm became a thing, that was the end of Node.js as a nice, bright little thing.

I don't want to defend or encourage gatekeeping, but Node.js brought in lots of folk that did not know what they were doing into software development, and they did not stop to learn a thing or two before creating a monstrosity like npm or making things like leftpad and this possible and popular. And there wasn't any seasoned leaders like Python or Perl communities had, so all that happened with no authoritative opposition. If it was Node.lua or Node.pl, the world would've been a different place today for the software development community.