Comprehending other people's non-generic code is a giant pain in the ass compared to reading code with generics.
The method was named something like "getCollectionOfSomething()"? If so, you might want to put some of the blame on the method naming choices.
Even if you do have a sensible naming scheme that makes the return type clear, it's rather beside the point. If I have a choice between relying on coding convention or generics, I know what option I'm going to pick.
But imho the method should not be named for the compiler-type of it's return value (unless it's a type converter like int2string or similar).
It should be named for the bizlogic/semantic type:
So..not "getURIs()", but better "getBackendPoolMembers()" or "getBackendPoolMemberURIs()" if you have more than one way of representing them.
Long method names are fine. Everyone uses autocomplete. Choose good names and rename them often as the meaning of the code changes over time.
var stuff []MyType