The behaviour you mention is from npm install, which will put the same exact version from the package-lock.json, if present. If not it will act as an npm update.

npm update will always update, and rewrite the package-lock.json file with the latest version available that complies with the restrictions defined on the package.json.

I may be wrong but, I think the difference may be that python only has the behaviour that package-lock.json offer, but not the package.json, which allows the developer to put constraints on which is the max/min version allowed to install.

I use it, and combining it with autocorrect and suggestions I find it really easy and fast to use.