without acknowledging that the root of the problem is insufficient type checking at the source

That may be true, but if the frontend verified the expected type with ===, it would be aware that something was wrong. Whereas if it used == and just blindly carried on, it would likely result in a buggy/broken interface. If you're aware of the wrong data format, you can at least present an error message

If you're passing gobbledygook then GIGO should apply

Without a specific scenario it's hard to say, but I might argue that in this case, you probably shouldn't be comparing anything anyway (apart from maybe checking that the value is populated at all)