In C, assigning the return value from malloc() to a specific type merely produces a warning:

  $ echo -ne "#include <stdlib.h>\nint foo() { return malloc(42); }" | gcc -xc -fsyntax-only -c -
  <stdin>: In function ‘foo’:
  <stdin>:2:20: warning: returning ‘void *’ from a function with return type ‘int’ makes integer from pointer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]

  $ echo -ne "#include <stdlib.h>\nint foo() { return malloc(42); }" | gcc -xc++ -fsyntax-only -c -
  <stdin>: In function ‘int foo()’:
  <stdin>:2:26: error: invalid conversion from ‘void*’ to ‘int’ [-fpermissive]

No, this counts as C++ is stupid to me. The memory returned by malloc is UNTYPED. The sole reason why void as a type exists is to convey the notion of no type, so that it needs to be assigned to a type by a programmer. If you mean "byte region, please cast before use" that's 'char *'. Since C++ now forces me to write a cast, it effectively forces me to hide and silence errors.

I do want an error when I violate types, I do not want it for void, because that's the whole meaning of void. C++ manages to make it the worst of both worlds.