use npm.common instead of spawn In the process, followed failing code path to command that wasn't respecting the loglevel and updated to RESPECT

Tests that call spawn() and ensure that no stdout/stderr events occur don't seem to work. In particular, the last npm prune test did not catch the stderr event.
I come to the exact opposite conclusion. This is the best case for EXEC_OPTS. The execution options used by all the tests is exactly the same. Thus, a shared variable is logical.

That being said. It does stray from the inline pattern.