There is a standard library... what comes in Node, or what comes in the Browser... anything beyond that is non-standard. I'm not sure where your problem is here. It's true of any other platform on the planet, some things are in the box, others are not.

The complain is that Node/the browser's "box" is too small. OP wants a "batteries included" standard library.

If size/resource consumption is a concern, the library could be broken up and `import`ed as necessary now that modules are a thing. Whatever standards body that chooses to implement this wouldn't even need tot worry about breaking old code and name collisions, as it could all be opt-in.

what would you put in the standard library? Specifically remembering that if it’s part of the standard library it has to be present in all JS environments.

how about left-pad?