Since going down this rabbit hole, I gave Anki another fair shot and actually RTFM :) the blog post warrants an update

https://docs.ankiweb.net/deck-options.html#learning-steps Details what _actually happens_ when you pick again/hard/good etc. I much prefer understanding this to the vibes-based approach of “did you pause before answering”.

Secondly turns out you can indeed very easily set up type-to-answer in a deck by editing the front template and adding

{type:Field}

where field is the answer part of the card’s data.

So… I’m actually using Anki again. I’m still very happy I did this, it was a fun little journey!