JavaScript is for HN what sex is for highscool : those who talk the most about it are those who practise it the less.
I was using JavaScript professionally in 1999 and still write it almost every day. Not sure what that makes of your sex analogy: maybe I'm the middle aged guy who goes "free love used to be much better in my day"?
You probably know what I meant by "make npm work" — dealing with the messy dependency ecosystem and the less than ideal tooling.