Sadly the alternative isn't much better: the old school model of not having packages often leads to libraries never getting updated at all. In C++ often adding a library is such a chore once you get through all the linking issues, as you battle the 4000 conflicting compiler switches, and compiler versions, that once it works you never want to change it again.
I think maybe the best solution we have so far are robust "batteries included" standard libraries like python, where even if they're huge theyre at least curated and maintained by a central group.
I feel like Bazel and Cmake have solved this sufficiently well. I regularly compile larger projects from scratch and usually the process is to call vcvars (I'm on Windows) and then Bazel and then an hour later I have a folder full of cached lib and dll files so that linking my actual executable only takes a second.
I would be so incredibly grateful to have something comparable in JavaScript that quickly checks static typing for my entire project. But the closest I have found is Rust/Elm, so not using JavaScript anymore.
I think maybe the best solution we have so far are robust "batteries included" standard libraries like python, where even if they're huge theyre at least curated and maintained by a central group.