We're aiming for deterministic package installs and using the tools the package manager, npm, provides. Please install npm v7.x (not lesser or greater). For a consistent package state, try starting with:

npm i -g npm@7
rm -rf node_modules
npm install

Upgrading a package (or adding a new one) should go as follows:

node --version
# should give you 12.x or above
npm --version
# should give you v7.x or above
npm i package@major.minor.patch --save(-dev)
# git review

Now everyone's happy and the patch got merged.