[huzaifaalmesbah]

What?

See #86088

Replaces bare return; statements in block render callbacks and helper functions with return values that match their documented return types, and removes the resolved entries from the PHPStan baseline.

Why?

PHPStan reports return.empty when a function documented to return string or array uses a bare return;, which actually returns null. Together, these changes clear 21 of the 226 errors initially baselined in #66693 (all 20 return.empty errors plus one related return.type error).

How?

• Render callbacks that return early now return '': Comment Reply Link, Comment Template, Comments Pagination, Comments Title, Icon, Page List, Post Comments Form, and Site Tagline. WP_Block::render() casts the callback result to a string, so the rendered output is unchanged.
• block_core_page_list_render_nested_page_list() returns '', and block_core_page_list_nest_pages() returns array(). Callers only concatenate the markup or pass the pages on to the renderer, which already returns early for empty input.
• block_core_navigation_get_menu_items_at_location() returns array(). Both callers check the result with empty(), so they behave the same.
• The deprecated block_core_navigation_maybe_use_classic_menu_fallback() actually returns the result of block_core_navigation_get_most_recently_published_navigation(), so its @return is corrected to WP_Post|null and the early returns are now an explicit return null;.
• Removed the 21 corresponding entries from tools/phpstan/baseline.neon.

Testing Instructions

1. Run composer phpstan and confirm it passes with no unmatched ignored errors.
2. Run the PHP unit tests for the affected blocks, e.g. npm run test:php -- --filter "Tests_Blocks_Render|page_list|navigation|comment".
3. Optional smoke test on the front end:
   • Add a Page List block on a site with no published pages and confirm nothing is rendered.
   • Add a Comments block to a post with comments closed and no comments and confirm the Comments Title, Comments Pagination, and Comment Template render nothing, as before.
   • Add a Site Tagline block with an empty tagline and confirm nothing is rendered.

Testing Instructions for Keyboard

Not applicable. There are no UI changes.

Screenshots or screencast

Not applicable.

Use of AI Tools

I used Claude Code to identify the affected occurrences and draft the change. I reviewed the diff and take responsibility for it.

[github-actions]

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