> Whether the error occurs at runtime or compile time is besides the point. Compile time adds a bit of additional safety, but really if an error exists, it will usually trigger at some point anyways.

Well, if the error is at compile time, there's no chance that code makes it to production and affects customers.

If the error is at runtime, you need to have tested that edge case and if you haven't, there could be customer impact.

I mean, once you see a few TypeErrors in Python code with no type annotations, or a few NullPointerExceptions in Java where there's no compile time null checking by default, I think it becomes very clear that catching things at compile time is much better...