Big difference though, I'd say, is software from those respective foundations are generally better tested, better documented, and less likely to have security holes than the average npm installed module.
I don't think they ever got "left-padded" as they say.
Not that your overall point is wrong (most definitely, it is not in my opinion). I think the reality is that this is what actually drives the concern of the size of the node_modules folder, because deep down, all frontend developers know that so many of these packages have never been vetted, probably won't be vetted, and there is alot of duplicate functionality in many of these dependencies, or the libs themselves just aren't designed to be efficiently consumed. Other communities (like Python) have been having community level conversations around the size of their respective package folders & the validity of reproducing their builds, security etc for awhile now, and the governing bodies for those respective communities (and/or language) are working hard to reduce redundancy among packages & encourage cooperation (the PSF, for instance, has funded directly or helped facilitate funding for many keystone packages, like flask, IIRC. It is also my understanding that Microsoft has been doing (and is expanding its efforts to) do this via the https://dotnetfoundation.org/ among other efforts)
Sadly, I have not seen the same effort within the NPM/frontend focused ecosystem. Though, maybe the open JS foundation will take off: https://openjsf.org/projects/