surely it can't be beyond the wit of programming kind to have a standard lib, or even layers of standard lib for Node?
What is the argument for not having a standard lib, apart from download speed?
When you put something in the standard library, it's harder to take it out, meaning that you're committing development resources to support the implementation. Furthermore things change: protocols and formats rise and fall in popularity and programming style evolves as the language changes (e.g. callbacks vs. promises in JS). Therefore the stdlib becomes where libraries go to die, and you'll always have a set of third party libraries that are "pseudo-standard", like NumPy in Python.
Having a minimal stdlib lets you "free-market" the decision, letting the community effects take care of what is considered standard in the ecosystem, and lets you optimize its minimal surface, like what happened with C.
I sometimes hanker for a return to Fortran IV where every routine was separately compiled and the linker only put into the object code those that were referred to by something else.
This can lead to the occasional rude surprise when finally reaching code I've been working on for awhile, but haven't yet connected to the rest of the project. But it means there's no need for tree shaking, because nothing gets in until it gets used. One of my favorite things about the language.
I moved to option 3: in all my apps I include a function library that I build over the years, so I don't start from scratch every time. I deeply hate ("hate speech" example here) dependencies to libraries from all over the Internet due to security reasons, but I copy-paste code when needed to my library after I read, understand and check the code that I copy. The biggest advantage is that some of this code is better than what I could invent from scratch in a busy day and I save the time of doing it right. The disadvantage is there is no way to reward these authors that contribute to humankind.
PS. My function library has functions mostly written by me, over 80%, but it includes code written by others. In my case, every time I need a function I check my existing library first, then analyze whether to write or copy.