You would also have to update your compiler. I guess you could phrase this as: you can't update your TS versions independently from your node.js version. But that's probably not an issue.
Updating node is much more fraught than updating TypeScript. For example, it may break any native code modules. That’s why users are directed to use the LTS and not the most recent release, so that there’s enough time for libraries to add support for the new version.
On the other hand, I usually adopt a new TypeScript version as soon as it comes out.
For production use, I'd still put my TS files through a build pipeline as normal
("Boring" in this context is a compliment, by the way)
EDIT: Though reading other comments, it seems like you can update the typescript stripper independent of node? That makes this moot anyway
With a couple exceptions (like enums), you can strip the types out of TypeScript and end up with valid JS. What you could do is stabilize the grammar, and release new versions of TypeScript using the same grammar. Maybe you need a flag to use LTS grammar in your tsconfig.json file.
Apart from a clueless engineer attempts them, it's been working out fine to pretend they don't exist.