That "just" is just your favorite alternative to "npm install". There's nothing "just" about it. Like preferring it was a pip or apt install.

Sure there is. When I’m done looking at it, I delete the Docker image and it’s gone from my system. That’s more effort with npm.

Also, the docker solution works for everything. So whether it’s a node app, or python, or Go, or Ruby... the process is the same.

Getting a docker image to performantly access a local folder across platforms is a huge challenge.

I love docker but it's just not good enough at handling watched folders.

You could create a Docker image that runs `npm install` and upload it to the hub.