Making node-tap working with TypeScript & `"type": "module"` in package.json (2023-08) (no artificial .js extensions for actual .ts fiiles)

1) package.json

{
    "type": "module",
    "test": "tap",
    "devDependencies": {
        "@esbuild-kit/esm-loader": "^2.5.5",
        "@swc/core": "^1.3.77",
        "@tsconfig/node18": "^18.2.0",
        "@types/node": "^20.5.0",
        "@types/tap": "^15.0.8",
        "tap": "^16.3.8",
        "ts-node": "^10.9.1",
        "tsconfig-paths": "^4.2.0",
        "typescript": "^5.1.6"
    }
}

2) tsconfig.json

{
    "extends": "@tsconfig/node18/tsconfig.json",
    "compilerOptions": {

        /* Projects */
        "incremental": true /* Save .tsbuildinfo files to allow for incremental compilation of projects. */,
        "tsBuildInfoFile": "./.delivery/.temp/.tsbuildinfo" /* Specify the path to .tsbuildinfo incremental compilation file. */,

        /* Language and Environment */
        "target": "es2022" /* Set the JavaScript language version for emitted JavaScript and include compatible library declarations. */,
        "experimentalDecorators": true /* Enable experimental support for legacy experimental decorators. */,
        "emitDecoratorMetadata": true /* Emit design-type metadata for decorated declarations in source files. */,

        /* Modules */
        "module": "es2022" /* Specify what module code is generated. */,
        "moduleResolution": "node" /* Specify how TypeScript looks up a file from a given module specifier. */,
        "baseUrl": ".",
        "paths": {
            "@root/*": ["./*"],
            "@src/*": ["./src/*"],
        },
        "resolveJsonModule": true /* Enable importing .json files. */,

        /* Interop Constraints */
        "esModuleInterop": true /* Emit additional JavaScript to ease support for importing CommonJS modules. This enables 'allowSyntheticDefaultImports' for type compatibility. */,
        "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true /* Ensure that casing is correct in imports. */,

        /* Type Checking */
        "strict": true /* Enable all strict type-checking options. */,

        /* Completeness */
        "skipLibCheck": true /* Skip type checking all .d.ts files. */
    },
    "ts-node": {
        "transpileOnly": true,
        "files": true,
        "swc": true,
        "esm": true,
        "require": ["tsconfig-paths/register"]
    }
}

3) .taprc

ts: true
reporter: spec
coverage: false
node-arg:
# This loader is what did the trick
  - --loader=@esbuild-kit/esm-loader
nyc-arg:
  - --report-dir="./tests/coverage"
  - --temp-dir="./tests/.temp/.nyc-output"
files:
  - "./tests/**/*.test.ts"