What are the potential consequences of not returning clearTimeout?

The question is asking about the potential negative effects of not returning the value returned by the clearTimeout() function in JavaScript.

import { useEffect, useState } from 'react';

function MyComponent() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  useEffect(() => {
    const timerId = setTimeout(() => {
      setCount(count + 1);
    }, 1000);

    // this is my point of concern what are the negative effects of removing this cleartimeout 
    return () => clearTimeout(timerId);
  }, [count]);

  return (
    <div>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
    </div>
  );
}

I am following up the documentation but curious to know why this constraint is for us.

This is a cleanup function to properly manage the timer. Without this the logic in your useEffect may re-run before the previous timer has been cleared. So if timers run in parallel you may see rapid increments in your count. And it also causes memory leak.

And also, you're not returning the value from the cleartimeout, but returning it as a cleanup function for the useEffect.