When a bundled CJS-shaped file calls require() on a bundled ESM-shaped module, esbuild emits (init_foo(), __toCommonJS(foo_exports)). Since f4ff26d (0.14.27), __toCommonJS allocates a fresh wrapper on every call, so two require() calls for the same module return different objects.

This diverges from Node's CJS semantics (cached module.exports), webpack's __webpack_require__ cache, and esbuild ≤ 0.14.26 (which memoized via WeakMap). The removal commit calls the cache "unnecessary", which is true for the entry-point module.exports = __toCommonJS(...) use, but not for inline require() of a bundled ESM module.

Repro (playground):

// esm-mod.js
export const value = 42;

// entry.js
const a = require('./esm-mod');
const b = require('./esm-mod');
console.log('a === b:', a === b);

npx esbuild entry.js --bundle | node
# a === b: false

Expected: true

Real-world impact: code that aliases two specifiers to the same module (e.g. exposing 'timers' and 'node:timers' from a sandbox require shim) or that registers state on require('foo') and reads it back via a second require('foo') silently breaks.