It's because the nature of typing has changed drastically over the last decade or so, in well known languages, going from C++/Java's `FancyObject *fancyObject = new FancyObject()` (which was definitely annoying to type, and was seen as a way to "tell the compiler how to arrange memory" as opposed to "how do we ensure constraints hold?") to modern TypeScript, where large well-typed programs can be written with barely a type annotation in sight.

There's also a larger understanding that as programs get larger and larger, they get harder to maintain and more importantly refactor, and good types help with this much more than brittle unit tests do. (You can also eliminate a lot of busywork tests with types.)

No it hasn’t? C++ type system has hardly changed (until concepts) and is one of the most powerful available.

A certain generation of devs thought types were academic nonsense and then relearned the existence of those features in other languages. Now they are zealots about using them.

Large programs are harder to maintain because people don't have the balls to break them into smaller ones with proper boundaries. They prefer incremental bandaids like type hints or unit tests that make it easier to deal with the big ball of mud, instead of not building the ball in the first place.