> isn't npm / yarn being installed basically the same as having make / cmake installed?
Not really as npm and yarn are whole package managers that work in parallel to your distro's standard package manager. They pull various sources (that haven't been vetted by anyone except hopefully by the end programmer who told you to use npm install) from who knows where and install them either in your own home, or system-wide with -g like suggested here.
Not really as npm and yarn are whole package managers that work in parallel to your distro's standard package manager. They pull various sources (that haven't been vetted by anyone except hopefully by the end programmer who told you to use npm install) from who knows where and install them either in your own home, or system-wide with -g like suggested here.
I would never use npm to install a system tool.