In the context of if statements I’m with you, it is completely safe because internally, the ToBoolean operation will be executed on the condition expression (see Step 3 on the spec).
But if you want to, lets say, return a boolean value from a function, you should ensure that the result will be actually boolean, for example:
function isFoo () {
return 0 && true;
}
console.log(isFoo()); // will show zero
typeof isFoo() == "number";
In conclusion, the Boolean Logical Operators can return an operand, and not a Boolean result necessarily:
The Logical AND operator (&&), will return the value of the second operand if the first is truly:
true && "foo"; // "foo"
And it will return the value of the first operand if it is by itself falsy:
NaN && "anything"; // NaN
0 && "anything"; // 0
On the other hand, the Logical OR operator (||) will return the value of the second operand, if the first one is falsy:
false || "bar"; // "bar"
And it will return the value of the first operand if it is by itself non-falsy:
"foo" || "anything"; // "foo"
Maybe it’s worth mentioning that the falsy values are: null, undefined, NaN, 0, zero-length string, and of course false.
Anything else (that is not falsy, a Boolean object or a Boolean value), evaluated in boolean context, will return true.