[wcarron]

Yup. I think, as you say, it's a part of the terrain of the ecosystem. Could the makers of Express have created a more comprehensive boilerplate that includes things like Helmet, Async, Moment, gulp, etc., etc.? Yeah, and I definitely think it would be a good addition to the community if they had. On the other hand, I do agree with the general sentiment that by forcing you to include the dependencies you desire, the programmer exerts more control over what is in the app, and it forces them to actually understand what they're doing with each package.

In the end it boils down to: Start with a monolith and chisel away the stuff you don't want - RoR, or start with a skeleton and add what you need as you need it.