So you formed your strong opinion, based on one hour of trying it. Gotcha.
As to your problem:
Use ˋ... as HTMLInputElementˋ if Typescript wasn't able to narrow your type sufficiently, or you believe that the value of typing this case isn't worth the effort. This should be somewhat rare.
Use ˋ... as unknown as HTMLInputElementˋ, if your idea of the variable is completely different from Typescript. But at that point you likely _have_ made a mistake somewhere.
Use ˋ...: anyˋ if you want to completely turn off checking. In most projects, this has to be explicitly specified for each parameter and declaration.
It gets more verbose, the more unsafe your code is.
As to your problem: Use ˋ... as HTMLInputElementˋ if Typescript wasn't able to narrow your type sufficiently, or you believe that the value of typing this case isn't worth the effort. This should be somewhat rare.
Use ˋ... as unknown as HTMLInputElementˋ, if your idea of the variable is completely different from Typescript. But at that point you likely _have_ made a mistake somewhere.
Use ˋ...: anyˋ if you want to completely turn off checking. In most projects, this has to be explicitly specified for each parameter and declaration.
It gets more verbose, the more unsafe your code is.