Is npm the bazooka or C++? As someone who's worked with C/C++ (and its hilarious explosion of tooling -- half-a-dozen at Google alone), maven, bundler and Cargo, I think it's just not accurate to say that the npm ecosystem has a particularly high level of complexity.

npm is the bazooka. Covers a lot more area with a single tool, but sometimes dangerous if you use it wrong.

C/C++ tooling is a plastic butterknife you get with airplane food.

Some languages actually have standard libraries so don't need bazookas..

What're you smoking? Can I have some?