Older versions of npm (6 and below?) had many issues. Recent versions are more predictable. npm is fine. yarn 1 has always been a solid choice.
There's nothing wrong with webpack except its lengthy build times. It's not a knock on webpack, it's more a knock on using JavaScript (node) for everything. Vite uses esbuild which is coded in Go. Next.js adopted swc (Rust) and hired the lead.
I recommend Next for large react apps and vite for apps that would otherwise use create-react-app. Obviously if you're doing Vue, use vite.
What would you recommend instead o yarn and webpack?
I have been using vite and npm in my small frontend projects.