Yes, quite literally there's more library than we developers/hackers can play with. I've spent a lot of time just browsing through all of them and they are all excellent. But there seems to be 3 types of npm modules on github, 1) active and mature 2)fairly new, stagnating, seldom active 3) abandoned.

How is this any different to the status of other projects in other environments?

Nice try, not going to point specific fingers at certain environments out of risk getting flamed.