Fix typing on optional strings

[montplaisir]

Proposed change(s)

Typing consistency
Rebase changes from PR #5727 on develop branch
Co-authored-by: @MHDante

Types of change(s)

• Bug fix

Checklist

• Updated the changelog (if applicable)

[u-pr]

💡 Harness Review

This is a small, behavior-preserving typing cleanup. I didn't find any defects or concrete follow-up issues worth flagging in the touched code.

_{Reviewed commit 7e36d38a}

_{🤖 Helpful? 👍/👎}