It's an ingenious system, because the sort of package handler who would handle a package roughly isn't the sort to carefully figure out how to reset them, and vice versa.

This is only because the sort of person who would rough up a package and only then figure out how to 'fix' it, becomes a computer programmer instead.

Sadly, most programmers are known for being bad at package management.

npm install -g babel-cli

npm ERR! code ENOENT

npm ERR! errno 66

npm ERR! Additional logging details can be found in ...

npm ERR! ... eh, who are we kidding. Don't quit your day job.

And the sort of person who would try to figure out to fix it before even touching the package goes into ops/ops-sec instead.

A long needle with a dab of super glue would probably work. It's brittle when it dries, so breaking the bond is pretty easy. Would leave 1 or 2 telltale holes, but you could be careful about where they are.

Nope. Super glue in a confined space causes a very visible white fog as it sets.

The receiver could always test it after the fact. If it didn’t work then I’m sure they would look closely for tampering and would have pretty good evidence that someone tried to defraud them. Seems risky.