[samhh]

It is, for example accessing an array or record doesn't unionise the returned value type with undefined, though this particular gaping hole of unsafety is being addressed in 4.1 with a new flag.

Beyond that there's functions that throw/reject doing so outside the type system, something solved by Either/Option/similar types in fp-ts.

The biggest benefit of fp-ts though is that it makes you think functionally. If you're dead set against that, then there are plenty of other libraries that give you types/wrappers like these without having to use pipe/flow (two functions you'll want to use before anything else in fp-ts).