What is wrong with Java's tooling and ecosystem? Asking because it used to be the default a decade or so ago, with a vibrant ecosystem, so I find your remark surprising.
An example of this ossification of understanding is how people still think dotnet is Windows only because they stopped caring before Core/Modern dotnet became a thing
One of my complaints with Gradle is that if you write a plugin (Java) it shares the classpath with other plugins. You might find some other plugin depending on some old version of a transitive dependency.
People have their problems with Maven but unless it's some overly complicated legacy project (where npm just explodes I guess? Like I have hD windows machines get frozen from deleting the node_modules folder), it just works and you just give a list of dependencies.