I agree. I am a going-greybeard who plateaued at one point in the IE5/6 era building ambitious cross-browser apps using direct-DOM vanilla JavaScript.
I resisted learning TypeScript because it felt like coding with handcuffs on.
I was sold on it when I realized how much easier the handcuffs make it to accept code contributions. I've internalized TS enough that I still get to flow state on my own code. Whole categories of rookie mistakes no longer interrupt my blissful concentration, because they are caught by tooling before making it in to a pull request.
I resisted learning TypeScript because it felt like coding with handcuffs on.
I was sold on it when I realized how much easier the handcuffs make it to accept code contributions. I've internalized TS enough that I still get to flow state on my own code. Whole categories of rookie mistakes no longer interrupt my blissful concentration, because they are caught by tooling before making it in to a pull request.