`npm i` breaks. Then we delete the lock file (and usually node_modules), run npm i again and it works. Probably it works for you and we are just unlucky or we were too lazy to use some cli magic, dunno. Yarn people here (at the company) usually say that yarn worked for them better, can't clarify about that.
One time out of fun and curiosity we flushed the cache and deleted the lockfile and the node modules dir, did npm i on a mac and a windows and they were undiffably different. Okay, this was months ago and probably there is a good explanation for it, but it was not reassuring.