>The right path forward for NPM and package managers like it is to stop preferring the latest possible version of all dependencies when installing a new package
As a package author specifically around one that wraps/interacts with REST APIs, begging people to upgrade at my company so I can deprecate old APIs can be a challenge. Maybe that's an argument for a monorepo, but still..
Obviously the current system has its flaws, but nudging packages towards newer code does have other clear benefits, like them automatically getting security fixes.