I work at a big company. Long break on your CV is a red flag for HR and Hiring Managers. It might be a different at smaller companies.
Of course, it depends on the company, but this is what I recall from my corporate years.
If I gave you money for a year to keep you and your family alive, and gave you free time to do whatever you want, do you really think you'd come back as a worse expert after a year?
Some people will take a year of and do nothing; some people will be bored to death after 3 months of doing nothing and for the next 9 months will learn tons of skills, new programming language etc. I'd not disqualify them because of that.
To the contrary-- I've known many people come back from a sabbatical/garden leave scenarios. Universally, the reaction is 'I wish I could take extended time-off like that'. It helps to have a great cover story like hiking the Inca Trail or spent time developing an extra cool project. *Providing care for an elderly loved one also gets understanding nods.