Stackblitz node.js starter project using express.static(staticPath) -- error in serving up static file index.html located in 'public' folder

Question

server.js

import express from 'express';
import { createReadStream } from 'fs';
import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';
import { dirname, join } from 'path';

const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
console.log("filename=", __filename);
const __dirname = dirname(__filename);

console.log("dirname =", __dirname);

const app = express();

const staticPath = join(__dirname, 'public');
console.log("Staticpath=", staticPath);

app.use(express.static(staticPath));

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    console.log("Staticpath.index.html=", join(staticPath, 'index.html'));
    const stream = createReadStream(join(staticPath, 'index.html'));
    stream.on('error', (err) => {
        console.error(err);
        res.status(500).send('Internal Server Error');
    });
    stream.pipe(res);
});
app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('Server listening on port 3000');
});

Terminal output of error

[nodemon] restarting due to changes...
[nodemon] starting `node server.js`
filename= /home/projects/stackblitz-starters-3ehyvi/server.js
dirname = /home/projects/stackblitz-starters-3ehyvi
Staticpath= /home/projects/stackblitz-starters-3ehyvi/public
Server listening on port 3000
Staticpath.index.html= /home/projects/stackblitz-starters-3ehyvi/public/index.html
[ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/projects/stackblitz-starters-3ehyvi/public/index.html'] {
  code: 'ENOENT',
  errno: -2,
  path: '/home/projects/stackblitz-starters-3ehyvi/public/index.html',
  syscall: 'open'
}

project structure

FILES
    public
        index.html
    .gitignore  
    package-lock.json
    package.json
    server.js

package.json

{
  "name": "node-starter",
  "private": true,
  "type": "module",
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "nodemon server.js"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.18.2"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "nodemon": "^3.0.3"
  }
}

NOTE It finds it if the index.html is moved to the root where the server.js resides and staticPath = __dirname.

The path in the log seems correct but it still is unable to find it in the public folder.