The Three Pillars of JavaScript Bloat
Summary
The article identifies three primary sources of JavaScript dependency bloat: older runtime support, atomic architecture, and ponyfills that linger after features become universally available. It argues that most projects pay costly maintenance for niche compatibility and bloated graphs, and offers practical mitigation strategies such as pruning with knip, using the e18e CLI for replacements, and visualizing dependencies with npmgraph. It also highlights security and maintenance risks associated with large supply chains and provides actionable steps for developers and maintainers.