Environment variables are all strings. That’s not .env files’ faults, it’s how env vars work. If you don’t want/need to read env vars… why use .env? If you do

Environment variables are all strings. That’s not .env files’ faults, it’s how env vars work. If you don’t want/need to read env vars… why use .env? If you do need to, then you’re stuck treating them as string input, sure, but that’s got nothing to do with .env files. They just help set env vars. If you get rid of your .env file but are still reading from env vars, all you’ve done is tie one hand behind your back.