[mitchellst]

The argument is less about central authority than standard process. You don't have to use the official NPM registry. The point is that having a pipeline for modules with established conventions and automated means of audits and visibility on the dependency is a net good. Yes, there is such a thing as a supply chain attack. But even when that happens, the community puts out the call to patch immediately and points a finger at the offending package. Your HTTPS import from a random URL could fail silently. While NPM is a big target for supply chain attack, they know they are, so there are a lot of eyes on it. Not so with your HTTPS import.