[13]

Slightly exaggerated, but that sort of thing absolutely happens.

[MichaelGG]

The 14,000 files is an actual measurement of the node_modules folder for the build of a static site I've seen. npm is inane.

[fapjacks]

Straw man. This is actually an EBKAC. Obviously, because I can do the same asinine thing in any language offering the ability to pull in dependencies.