Typescript this parameter type

Question

defineProperties(Element.prototype, {
    querySelector: {
        value: querySelectorPatched,
        writable: true,
        enumerable: true,
        configurable: true,
    },
    querySelectorAll: {
        value(this: HTMLBodyElement): NodeListOf<Element> {
            const nodeList = arrayFromCollection(
                elementQuerySelectorAll.apply(this, ArraySlice.call(arguments) as [string])
            );

            if (!featureFlags.ENABLE_NODE_LIST_PATCH) {
                const filteredResults = getFilteredArrayOfNodes(
                    this,
                    nodeList,
                    ShadowDomSemantic.Disabled
                );
                return createStaticNodeList(filteredResults);
            }

            return createStaticNodeList(
                getFilteredArrayOfNodes(this, nodeList, ShadowDomSemantic.Enabled)
            );
        },
        writable: true,
        enumerable: true,
        configurable: true,
    },

});

I want to understand this part of the following Typescript code here:

value(this: HTMLBodyElement): NodeListOf<Element>

I believe this code is overriding the standard querySelectorAll method. But the method is being defined on an Element, yet the value for this in the function is HTMLBodyElement. Does this mean the method can only be called from a body element? Or perhaps it's called from Element and then casted to HTMLBodyElement? Can someone explain the logic of this code? This is a part of the following repository.

Answer 1

Nobody will explain this better than the developers of that project, but it totally looks like a mistake to me.

this is only being used in three function calls of two different types, in which it is passed as one parameter:

function querySelectorAll<E extends Element = Element>(selectors: string): NodeListOf<E>;

function getFilteredArrayOfNodes<T extends Node>(
    context: Element,
    unfilteredNodes: T[],
    shadowDomSemantic: ShadowDomSemantic
): T[]

When passing this typed as HTMLBodyElement to each of these functions, the type is actually always widened as Element, even in querySelectorAll because there is no type provided between angle brackets and no possible inference so the resolved E type is Element (the default type).

According to me, value(this: HTMLBodyElement) should be value(this: Element) because it is meant to override Element.prototype.querySelectorAll.

Doing so doesn't break anything in the code and is much more correct.