Calling Skelton a dependency is ludicrous. It's just an HTML file with a CSS file. Look at every other "lightweight CSS framework" - Specture, Mustard UI, etc. They all have dozens and dozens of files where you need a package manager.
The whole point was that it's simple enough that I don't have to deal with a package manager, and a lot of projects don't need to.
The whole point is that you choose an arbitrary thing to treat as a dealbreaker that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. "npm install jquery" would have given you the exact same result you have, except it would have violated your dealbreaker. It just doesn't seem particularly logical to me.
To be honest, if you're going for "as simple as possible" there's no reason to use jQuery at all these days, it's a waste. Modern browsers have perfectly capable APIs!
The whole point was that it's simple enough that I don't have to deal with a package manager, and a lot of projects don't need to.