Without Angular, we may very well not have TypeScript today. The top thing listed in this release (TypeScript doesn't follow semver, btw) is about Decorators. I find the whole story about Angular's role in TypeScript early days to be very fascinating because I don't hear people talk about it anymore (just search "AtScript TypeScript" if you weren't around at the time). It was the Angular team that forced Decorators t…
One of my most regretted decisions was evaluating Flow vs Typescript and going with Flow. Years later I had the opportunity to use Typescript and it was so nice comparatively. I've enjoyed it ever since. Of course, that was with years of development in its belt so maybe the experience wouldn't have been as nice if I went with it originally.
I went with TypeScript early on because the compiler chain felt better integrated than the alternatives. No messing with chains of babel translators and source mappings; just use one tool. Maybe I liked the syntax better, also. Although as I recall, in the beginning, somebody my company interviewed had set up TypeScript using Babel, and it was all very over-my-head and impressive. He turned out to be too good to work for us, but some of his ideas really stuck with me.
[1]This is why I dislike cutesy names for software projects. Just call it FacebookTypeAnnotatedJavaScriptFrobulator3003 (FTAJSF3003) or something.