fragmented, yes, but also amazingly thriving.

There is no one standard choice for anything (except possibly React and Redux as the author says). You get to choose your own stack, how you like it.

Yes, it's more effort to get something you like. But you end up with something you like more.

It's not so bad. You just pick the most popular thing or use the recommendations in articles like this one. The ecosystem is harder to dive into than any other language I've used, but you only dive in fresh the first time (or after you've done something else for two years).

JavaScript is hardly the only language to have multiple test runners.

chai and expect aren't test runners, just libraries with assert helpers. I personnally stick to jasmine. Chai is what happens when Rubyists try to write some JS like they write some ruby.

I was kinda hoping it was satire