Sure, type inference isn't always better, but it's usually clearer — I almost always already know the type of the thing, so explicit types are just noise — and

Sure, type inference isn't always better, but it's usually clearer — I almost always already know the type of the thing, so explicit types are just noise — and languages with inference still let you write let me: Person = something.getOwner(); so you still have the freedom to write the type explicitly.