import.meta.resolve with npm specifiers inconsistency

[oscarotero]

Version: Deno 1.44.1 and greater (including Deno 2)

I just realized npm specifiers have changed its behavior with import.meta.resolve in Deno 1.44.1 and this breaks the esbuild plugin of Deno in some cases (like in this example).

For example, let's say I have the following import map:

{
  "imports": {
    "react": "npm:[email protected]"
  }
}

In Deno 1.44.0:

import.meta.resolve("react"); // npm:[email protected]
import.meta.resolve("npm:[email protected]"); // npm:[email protected]
import.meta.resolve("npm:[email protected]"); // npm:[email protected]

In Deno 1.44.1 or Deno 2:

import.meta.resolve("react"); // file:///Users/oscarotero/Library/Caches/deno/npm/registry.npmjs.org/react/18.3.1/index.js
import.meta.resolve("npm:[email protected]"); // npm:[email protected]
import.meta.resolve("npm:[email protected]"); // file:///Users/oscarotero/Library/Caches/deno/npm/registry.npmjs.org/react/18.3.1/index.js

As you can see, sometimes the resolver returns the file URL to the local cache file, some times it returns the npm specifier.

Is this the expected behavior? Is there any way to make it work like before? I want to detect if a bare import (like react) is pointing to a npm specifier or not. I don't want the local cache file.