Here's a proposal (that I'm sure others have come up with in the past) -- why not create one big, community backed "batteries included"-type module that would implement all the small, commonly used functions. This could combine all these ridiculously small libraries and greatly reduce the number of necessary dependencies for a package. Extending the standard library should be just that: standardized. If the entire community focused on one project like that they could just as easily write the same code (but with smaller package.jsons, less require()s, and less time spent learning new libraries/searching for the right libraries. In fact, it would be great if something like that could be packaged as a standard node module so you'd get the same sort of quality assurance as you get with official projects.