Webpacker behaves differently in production from development modes

Question

Deployment of an application is occuring as expected in development mode, but failing in production mode at this stage

$HOME/.rbenv/bin/rbenv exec bundle exec rake assets:precompile

rake stdout: yarn install v1.22.19
[1/4] Resolving packages...
[2/4] Fetching packages...
[3/4] Linking dependencies...
[4/4] Building fresh packages...
Done in 4.73s.
Compiling...
Compilation failed:
Though the "loose" option was set to "false" in your @babel/preset-env config, it will not be used for @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object since the "loose" mode option was set to "true" for @babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties.
The "loose" option must be the same for @babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties, @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods and @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object (when they are enabled): you can silence this warning by explicitly adding
    ["@babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object", { "loose": true }]
to the "plugins" section of your Babel config.
Though the "loose" option was set to "false" in your @babel/preset-env config, it will not be used for @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods since the "loose" mode option was set to "true" for @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object.
The "loose" option must be the same for @babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties, @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods and @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object (when they are enabled): you can silence this warning by explicitly adding
    ["@babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods", { "loose": true }]
to the "plugins" section of your Babel config.
Though the "loose" option was set to "false" in your @babel/preset-env config, it will not be used for @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object since the "loose" mode option was set to "true" for @babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties.
The "loose" option must be the same for @babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties, @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods and @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object (when they are enabled): you can silence this warning by explicitly adding
    ["@babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object", { "loose": true }]
to the "plugins" section of your Babel config.
Though the "loose" option was set to "false" in your @babel/preset-env config, it will not be used for @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods since the "loose" mode option was set to "true" for @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object.
The "loose" option must be the same for @babel/plugin-proposal-class-properties, @babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods and @babel/plugin-proposal-private-property-in-object (when they are enabled): you can silence this warning by explicitly adding
    ["@babel/plugin-proposal-private-methods", { "loose": true }]
to the "plugins" section of your Babel config.
node:internal/crypto/hash:71
  this[kHandle] = new _Hash(algorithm, xofLen);
                  ^

Error: error:0308010C:digital envelope routines::unsupported
    at new Hash (node:internal/crypto/hash:71:19)
    at Object.createHash (node:crypto:133:10)
    at module.exports (/home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/webpack/lib/util/createHash.js:135:53)
    at NormalModule._initBuildHash (/home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/webpack/lib/NormalModule.js:417:16)
    at handleParseError (/home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/webpack/lib/NormalModule.js:471:10)
    at /home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/webpack/lib/NormalModule.js:503:5
    at /home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/webpack/lib/NormalModule.js:358:12
    at /home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/loader-runner/lib/LoaderRunner.js:373:3
    at iterateNormalLoaders (/home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/loader-runner/lib/LoaderRunner.js:214:10)
    at iterateNormalLoaders (/home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/loader-runner/lib/LoaderRunner.js:221:10)
    at /home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/loader-runner/lib/LoaderRunner.js:236:3
    at context.callback (/home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/loader-runner/lib/LoaderRunner.js:111:13)
    at /home/deploy/dapp/shared/node_modules/babel-loader/lib/index.js:44:71 {
  opensslErrorStack: [ 'error:03000086:digital envelope routines::initialization error' ],
  library: 'digital envelope routines',
  reason: 'unsupported',
  code: 'ERR_OSSL_EVP_UNSUPPORTED'
}

Node.js v18.15.0

the fact that the deployment executes fully in development, but not in production is a worrisone factor.

To top things off, one can go to the VPS, find the latest release directory and run both yarn install and RAILS_ENV=production bundle exec rake assets:precompile with no issue whatsoever.

Then... running cap production deploy actually completes as expected. which is not expected.

What is going on here between webpacker and capistrano? I suspect further changes will be subjec to jumping through the same hoops anew & would like to avoid doing so.