Imagine the following (admittedly bad, minimalistic to make my point) code
x = int(input(">>> "))
a = x / 2
append_int_to_magical_db(a)
If the division does a "naturaL" thing, you suddenly have a float "polluting" your integer algorithm, but it's _not consistent_. If the user enters "4", you get an int back. If they enter 5, you get a float.