one of the most crucial packages that use node-gyp are bcrypt and argon2. Both are needed heavily for password hashing while implementing authentication and while pure js alternatives are available, they run terribly
That would be a good argument to not implement authentication again and go with a solid authentication and authorisation software like Keycloak, Zitadel, or Ory Kratos.
if only integrating keycloak was simple eh?
If you are dealing with argon2 and bcrypt, I think you coud manage some JWT hell.
i did mention "and while pure js alternatives are available, they run terribly"
Slow is much faster than it not working at all. If this is a project that you might not touch for months or years, perhaps having fast bcrypt is not that important.