The information on what needs annotating isn't quite complete: loops and some other macros need annotations.

I'm probably responsible for the thinking that annotations are only needed for "top levels and function parameters". I usually forget about the other ones, but I think those two are the most significant.

is there any feedback from rich hickey on your work on core.typed, are you guys aligned on how it should be designed/implemented?

Rich hasn't been directly involved, aside from providing encouragement.

Almost all the design/implementation work was done via Typed Racket anyway. I stole a lot of it and spent most of the time on Clojure-specific problems.

How was it decided that it will be part of core contrib?

Ambrose proposed it and the Clojure core team accepted it.

Fixed!