node.js in and of itself as a standalone of the V8 runtime is acceptable, but the moment people start talking about "ecosystems" and using the train wreck of idiocy that is NPM, things tend to go bits-up face-down. Dependency hell, people blindly copying/using code they don't even understand because they don't know enough Vanilla JS to do much of anything unassisted... it's not a pretty picture.
Only made sadder by JavaScript itself, a hacked together mess of a language that layering more and more hacks atop it as ECMAScript really isn't helping.
The only reason it was ever "popular' prior to node.js was it was the ONLY tool available browser-side. Using it server-side is an ugly kludge at best, and whilst I can appreciate the idea of using the same language server and client-side, when that client-side language is utter garbage, using it server-side just seems really REALLY stupid.
Particularly with many of the pointless redundancies, sloppy over-use of callbacks, the gibberish and hard to follow "promises" for people too stupid to handle event driven code, and the painfully cryptic trash being added like arrow functions... well, it's hard to call the current incarnation of JavaScript "good".
But what do I know? I spent a decade writing code in Ada and have RCA 1802 machine language I hand assembled in orbit running on SoS. (Silicon on Sapphire, it's radiation hardened)
Really my starting in ASM/ML then going to Wirth family languages? It gives me a level of disgust at most C syntax languages. If JavaScript weren't the only option client-side, I wouldn't use it. The only reason I've ever dealt with C/C++ is that it's what employers were already using... and even then it's a ***-show designed to create memory leaks, hard to follow code, and a general lassez-faire attitude towards development.
On those grounds I almost want Blazer to take off, but being it's M$ and C# it's a step sideways at best.
Next time I have down-time between clients, I should sit my ass down and write an Ada to Web-Assembly compiler. Even though I deal with C syntax every blasted day, I'm REALLY sick of it.
But simply put, JavaScript is an ugly kludge of a language that was poorly thought out from day one. Whilst there have been vast improvements thanks to ECMAScript, it's simply not a language I'd expect anyone qualified to write software to use by choice.