That's not an accurate history; npm started around 2010 and didn't become a company until 2014. Perhaps it was all part of a master plan to build the perfect trojan unicorn, but I invite you to look at some of the 2010-era code and blog posts to judge for yourself: https://github.com/npm/cli/tree/e790c85a https://blog.izs.me/2010/11/10-cool-things-you-probably-didn...

You can read and/or listen to issacs talk about the actual history here: https://changelog.com/founderstalk/61

In the early days of node, the ability to have tiny nested modules without opening the gates to dependency hell was such a profoundly new and exciting capability that the community didn't need any convincing to (over-)embrace it. As with microservices today or CORBA in the 90s, moving your design's complexity from its nodes to its edges is a powerful way to convince yourself that you've made it simpler.