[danabramov]

Many people (especially beginners) appreciate automatic updates of their dependencies. If you eject straight away you’ll have to manage them yourself, which is a big turnoff to many.

[pbreit]

Could there be some sort of npm feature that incorporates a remote list of dependencies & versions?

[danabramov]

Yep, it’s called a “package”. ;-)

[pbreit]

So could whatever create-react-app is delivering be substantially approximated with an npm-based solution?

[danabramov]

create-react-app is an npm-based solution.