Is it unfair to say that some of these problems are caused by a lack of awareness (or an unwillingness) to learn from other communities (like, Ruby, Java etc) that have solved these some of these problems already?
No. And that is also why JS is successful. Newbies with little oversight create new tools. Of thousands of them, one or two become popular because of non-functional reasons (right blog post, right fit, easy use, ..).
Tech pop-culture... Navigating these technology growth explosions is like searching for solid reference architecture in a booming shantytown. Some parts of these settlements eventually get things like running water, working sewage, urban planning.
Welcome to the mess :)