I've been writing JavaScript for 15 years, and I still get annoyed when a senior dev says TypeScript is mandatory for every codebase. The language adds safety, sure, but it also slows you down on prototypes and small tools where plain JS is perfectly readable. I've seen teams waste hours fixing type errors on throwaway scripts that never shipped. But I also know a fintech startup that credits TypeScript for catching a nasty null bug before production. The real question is whether we're optimizing for long-term maintenance or short-term speed, and the answer isn't obvious to me.