and I’ve confirmed through the REPL that the line above it (new_note = mw.col.newNote(model)) is not creating a note of tpye “cardTypeNameHere”.
Instead, it is creating a note of whichever type I last created by hand through anki’s “Add” gui window.
In other words, when I press “Add” to create a new card by hand, whatever the card type is shown there, that’s the same card type that new_note = mw.col.newNote(model) creates in python
col.newNote() is deprecated and takes a boolean, not a notetype. Use col.new_note() which has the signature you expect.
I’d advise you to look at the source code or enable type hints.