Honestly, as a PHP développer, the node's module system impress me A LOT. I went on several projects that had not kept their dependencies on the "edge version". For some, it was more than a year of work just to be able to move from php7 to php8.

PHP dependencies are so intertwined that for projects that abuse and use more than a reasonable amount (aka their ability to invest time keeping them and the code using it up to date) the update process can become a nightmare of complexity.

Node's module system let you move each dependency at it's own pace. This is such a breath!

The problem is that when you only know of the solution of your ecosystem, it's hard to see the added value you miss out.