I will bet a lot of the NPM dependency problems can be solved if Node directly implemented many of the Web APIs. If PHP can implement Dom Parser, there's no reason Node can't implement it as well, for example.
Because dependencies are managed so easily in Node, it makes no sense for Node core developers to implement more and more of the ever-expanding APIs offered by the browser. They’re better off spending that time tightening the system and perhaps offering low-level interfaces.
You mean whoever created NPM the business profited from Node JS barebone standard library, which Node JS creator himself regretted creating an opportunity for a commercial package manager and registry by making his creating depend on such commercial product.
Since when acquisitions are free for the buyer? Someobody made a lot of money from NPM.