React project crashing Visual Studio after NPM package update - node.js

Question

I took over a ASP.net solution with multiple projects in Visual Studio (Professional 2017), one of these projects is in React. I have some experience with React-Native, but I am rather new to React, plus I am new to the code base I inherited.
Since the project was using many outdated and potentially insecure packages (according to npm audit), I decided to update using NPM by carefully replacing some ^1.2.3 with * inside my package.json (see below) as I read somewhere that this is common procedure.
Although there are no errors displayed in Visual Studio's Error List, the React project has troubles to compile and I am seeing an empty page in the browser. The error code is
index.tsx:1 Uncaught Error: Module parse failed: Unexpected token (51:4)
You may need an appropriate loader to handle this file type, currently no loaders are configured to process this file. See https://webpack.js.org/concepts#loaders
|
| ReactDOM.render(
> <LocaleProvider locale={enUS}>
| <Provider store={store}>
| <Layout>
at eval (index.tsx:1)
at Object../src/index.tsx (bundle.js:96)
at __webpack_require__ (bundle.js:20)
at bundle.js:84
at bundle.js:87
(anonymous) # index.tsx:1
./src/index.tsx # bundle.js:96
__webpack_require__ # bundle.js:20
(anonymous) # bundle.js:84
(anonymous) # bundle.js:87
This looks like some webpack issue, but the exact error message is changing while I am trying to resolve the dependencies.
More curiously, my IDE is crashing after a few minutes, while contentiously creating files named VMxx, see my screenshot of the solution explorer
Inside those files I find e.g.
window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__ && window.__REACT_DEVTOOLS_GLOBAL_HOOK__.renderers.size > 0
Clearly, something went wrong with the package update. But what does the described behavior mean? Can I deduce which packages I better should not have updated?
Package.json before
"dependencies": {
"antd": "^2.10.0",
"babel-polyfill": "^6.23.0",
"download": "^6.2.5",
"immutable": "^3.8.1",
"moment": "^2.24.0",
"react": "15.5.3",
"react-dom": "15.5.3",
"react-redux": "^5.0.4",
"react-router-dom": "^4.1.1",
"react-router-redux": "^5.0.0-alpha.6",
"redux": "^3.6.0",
"redux-saga": "^0.14.8",
"reselect": "^3.0.0",
"whatwg-fetch": "^2.0.3"
},
"devDependencies": {
"#types/react": "15.0.21",
"#types/react-dom": "0.14.23",
"#types/react-redux": "^4.4.40",
"#types/react-router-redux": "^5.0.0",
"awesome-typescript-loader": "3.1.2",
"babel-core": "^6.24.1",
"babel-loader": "^7.0.0",
"babel-plugin-transform-es2015-parameters": "^6.24.1",
"babel-preset-env": "^1.4.0",
"css-loader": "^3.2.0",
"extract-text-webpack-plugin": "^2.1.0",
"less": "^2.7.2",
"less-loader": "^4.0.3",
"source-map-loader": "0.2.1",
"style-loader": "^0.17.0",
"ts-loader": "2.0.3",
"typescript": "2.2.1",
"webpack": "^2.7.0"
}
Package.json afterwards
"dependencies": {
"#types/node": "*",
"#types/react-select": "*",
"antd": "2.10.0",
"babel-polyfill": "6.23.0",
"download": "6.2.5",
"draft-js": "^0.11.0",
"immutable": "3.8.2",
"jquery": "^3.4.1",
"moment": "*",
"react": "*",
"react-dom": "*",
"react-lazy-load": "^3.0.13",
"react-redux": "*",
"react-router-dom": "*",
"react-router-redux": "*",
"redux": "3.6.0",
"redux-saga": "0.14.8",
"reselect": "3.0.1",
"webpack-cli": "^3.3.8",
"whatwg-fetch": "^3.0.0"
},
"devDependencies": {
"#types/react": "^16.9.2",
"#types/react-dom": "0.14.23",
"#types/react-redux": "4.4.40",
"#types/react-router-dom": "^4.3.5",
"#types/react-router-redux": "5.0.0",
"ajv": "^6.10.2",
"awesome-typescript-loader": "3.1.2",
"babel-core": "6.26.3",
"babel-loader": "7.1.5",
"babel-plugin-transform-es2015-parameters": "6.24.1",
"babel-preset-env": "1.7.0",
"css-loader": "*",
"less": "2.7.3",
"less-loader": "4.1.0",
"source-map-loader": "0.2.1",
"style-loader": "0.17.0",
"ts-loader": "2.0.3",
"typescript": "2.2.1",
"webpack": "^4.40.2"
}