To me `unknown` signals an intent to know, as in “I don’t know yet” (or put another way, “I don’t have any prerequisites for accepting this value, I can and will narrow it as appropriate”). In a codebase that otherwise takes type safety seriously, `any` in a type parameter (again to me) means “I don’t have any type narrowing agenda for this thing, it’s along for the ride and coming out the other side the same way it showed up”.

I’m not being lazy? I am taking extra time and expending extra energy to make sure the metadata I put in code is as informative as possible. In this use case `any` carries more information. I use `unknown` in place of `any` exactly as it’s intended wherever I’m able.

Also, please don’t continue to be a jerk at me.

The case I was trying to convey doesn’t narrow the actual type for anything outside its own function body. Any footgun that exists after the function call already existed before it. It just implies “I’m only looking at your keys not your values”.