So, here is a screenshot and a short recording of the typing card:
I think, it is as you describe. I am not familiar with the “type into card” option on android, but on iOS it clearly does not write on the card, but in the text field above.
Before I wrote the post yesterday, I did some testing with the buttons and the JS, and to my understanding, the buttons can be pushed, the on-click event is also triggered and transmitted to the JS and JS function is called. So, I think it would be possible to “store” the typed answer on the screen to show the user what they have typed/ pushed. But the missing element is something to store the pushed button/ typed information from front to back (maybe using the SessionStorage?).
The fact that it is also mentioned in the manual alongside AnkiMobile makes me think that on iPhone Anki works the same way in this regard.
Yes, on the backside of the card, the typeans element can be accessed. It actually stores the answer and seems to work in the indented way (see screen recording.) But on the front it does not exist.
Without it, even if the rest of the code is fixed, multiple-choice cards will require manually pressing the “Show Answer” button each time after an answer is selected.
I am not too worried about the showAnswer functionality. For now I also need to manually click somewhere to flip to the back. If the rest works, I thinks it’s fine. Of course, it would be nice to have, but apparently this functionality is not coming to iOS (according to the post you linked). So, I guess there is nothing we can do about it.
I hope that helps. Let me know, if I can test something (or if you need more screenshots)