Yes. If I need to find a module for a node project, NPM is the best place to find it. Many languages/frameworks have a centralized repository to find modules/plugins/extensions.
NPM's search isn't perfect (I don't think you'll find anyone who would argue that it is). The fact that it's all AJAX and isn't well indexed makes it even worse for the people who are google'ing a project. In a perfect world you'd be able to find projects easily however you want to. We live in a flawed world, and NPM's search does a good-enough job of helping you find a module, especially if you know it's name. You can complain about it not being how you'd like, but there's a workable, practical system in place now that you can use. I just don't understand the complaint.
This is the same problem as "Go". The community has to develop a different term for googling the project than the project's name.