I love threads like this, it's so stereotypical JS. OP asks if it's the de-facto choice which it objectively is, but everyone recommends their pet project or favourite library instead.
Also FWIW, there are a bunch of other popular options… but nearly all of them have roughly the same interface and follow the same general principles as express. Again, I wish it weren’t so. But you’re right, that isn’t responsive to the question being asked.
Every place I have interviewed at in the past several months who uses Node on the back-end said they use NextJS.
Out of the 21 top level comments, all but two mentioned one or more of: fastify, express, kora, hona, adnos, bun/elysia
Half of them recommended Fastify.
Other results: 3 express, 2 hono, 2 bun/elysia, 1 adnos