A Node process is not a web server and not a framework; it is a JavaScript engine plus an I/O library plus a standard library, started from a command line whose flags decide how your code is parsed, watched and sandboxed. Most of the behavior people blame on Express 24,430 or Next.js 10,514 — a route that stalls the server, a container that will not shut down, a script that runs locally but not in CI — is really the runtime showing through the framework.