There's still a difference between javascript and other languages with respect to dependencies. E.g. if I open a 5yr old python project there's a fair chance all the dependencies still exist and still work with a more recent python interpreter, let alone work at all.

My --limited, to be fair-- experience with npm is that you can barely look away from a project for a week or it'll have a bunch of deeply broken dependencies, requiring you to update them which then breaks other dependencies in turn.