Contribution

• I'd be willing to implement this feature (contributing guide)

Describe the user story

In #8861 most of the npm_package_ environment variables were removed. One of the issues that PR referenced linked to an NPM RFC from 5 years ago, and I get the feeling too many of npm_package_ env vars were removed in #8861 (perhaps mistakenly/due to a misunderstanding of which are still in use by NPM today).

A similar case to this happened with yarn a while back. See yarnpkg/berry#2436

A recent problem this has caused is mentioned in uhop/node-re2#221

Describe the solution you'd like

Re-add the npm_package_ env vars still in use by current versions of NPM today.

See yarnpkg/berry#2436

Describe the drawbacks of your solution

None that I know of.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Considering the problems this has caused, the only other options is to use NPM or Yarn.