[simonrepp]

You are correct! The thinking behind this is that for the majority of file-based configuration and content usecases the expected types are fixed and known beforehand already - ergo it makes more sense that a developer has to specify once which type a field is (gaining in return 100% type safety, validation, localized validation messages, ...) than all users later having to e.g. explicitly write quotes a million times when writing configuration/content, just to tell the application something about the type it already knows anyway (and wouldn't expect/accept any other way too). I think this is really more ergonomic, even in the short run.