I'm following the odin project to learn web development. I had read about malicious packages in npm multiple times, so I avoided it until now. I'm on the webpack lesson now, and to use webpack, I need to install it using npm. I also see that it has many dependencies, and those dependencies will have other depenedencies and so on.

Why is it like this? Is there any other tool like webpack that doesn't require npm? Or rather, can someone clarify how to properly use npm or link a guide that explains it? I have this kind of fear and reluctance about using npm after all the things I read.