noImplicitAny is different than what's being discussed (I think). Returning something typed as `any` in a function that has a different return type is totally f

noImplicitAny is different than what's being discussed (I think). Returning something typed as `any` in a function that has a different return type is totally fine: it's not implicit (you've cast it to any), and it passes (you're saying the type is literally anything after all). There are lint rules to avoid typing as `any`.