"Larger coherent efforts like lodash" already exist and are used by many people on many projects. Perhaps Node's real problem is that it allows developers to structure each project in exactly the way that they feel is best for that project, rather than enforcing a "Java way" etc. A greater variety of techniques naturally yields more techniques that bother any particular developer's sensibilities. Those who don't like the "Java way", for instance, are likely to simply avoid Java rather than tweeting, "OMG I just realized that you can write Java the Java way!"
It's a matter of taste, and Node accommodates various tastes.
You could say that about just about any modern-ish packaging system.
Sure, npm gives you plenty of rope to hang yourself with, but you can't really blame people for pointing out that what you were doing was a bad idea when you end up dangling from the noose you just created.
Haha I was saying "real problem" ironically. I don't think it's a problem at all to flexibly support a variety of approaches. Let a hundred flowers bloom, I say. Neither do I think it's inherently misguided to use the "micromodule" approach. That will work for some projects, if not for others. This episode has been entirely overblown. I'm sure some people went offline over it, but that wasn't entirely or even mostly due to the assholes at Kik. Rather, it was one or more fragile parts of their own infrastructure, exposed by an untimely missing dependency.
It's a matter of taste, and Node accommodates various tastes.