Once again I got myself into a situation where the Pi installation got messed up, and the best way forward is a fresh install. I used to run steps in this link simplifying Node installation for Raspbian.

Googling for the link again during Pi install (not bookmarked) I stumbled upon another interesting way to install Node. Not only will it work for Raspbian, it should work for Windows and Mac as well (Mac is not a priority; calling out for coverage). Also, different users on the same OS can install and use their own versions of Node without complications, while flipping between Node versions for the same user on a whim (also known as a Node Version Manager). How nice!

How Version Manager helped

As it happened I was going to update my BLE code, which was untouched in GitHub for months. The code depended on Noble, which at time of writing was not updated since Jul 2018. Installing this module on the LTS version (v10) broke trying to install node-bluetooth-hci-socket. Using N I was able to quickly switch Node versions and see which ones will install this module successfully. Turned out only v8.11.4 and earlier worked.

Other benefits

Since N retains multiple versions of Node, it is possible (yet to confirm) to use different Node versions for each app by being explicit on the executable path. One does not even need root access to install Node now. Coming from a work environment where nearly everything is locked down this is a strong advantage.

Noteworthy callout

Another Version Manager is Node Version Manager. Some folks in the forums swear by this.