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In Data.Typeable.Internal, we see

class Typeable (a :: k) where
  typeRep# :: TypeRep a

typeRep :: Typeable a => TypeRep a
typeRep = typeRep#

Why have typeRep separate from typeRep#? The only difference I can see is the specificity of the k variable. To wit, we have

typeRep# :: forall (k :: Type) (a :: k). Typeable @k a => TypeRep @k a
typeRep :: forall {k :: Type} (a :: k). Typeable @k a => TypeRep @k a

The only difference is the braces.

But we needn't do all this. Instead, we could define

class Typeable a where
  typeRep :: TypeRep a

It's unfortunate not to make that explicitly poly-kinded, but it would be inferred to be poly-kinded, and typeRep would get the right specificity.

So, is there anything stopping us from this simplification?