this is still true of node/npm. It's also true of Cargo (Rust), Nuget (C#), and a handful of others. I'd say it's probably the _norm_ for most ecosystems to allow some form of pre/post-install execution.
And is true that most package managers for popular language allow arbitrary code execution during the install process. That is how husky adds git hooks to the developers machines.
For example in Ruby I need to patch the Kafka gem, karafka because it downloads, builds and stores librdkafa.so in the gem's directory.
I understand that this as well as the husky example comes from a desire to make developer lifes easier but I'd rather we erred on the side of caution. Making sure that software builds without access to the network and without being able to modify your system (ej. Adding files to $HOME)