Question

2 typical samples:

public ActionResult Index()
{
   return View();
}

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Create()
{
   return PartialView();
}

Why do they not return the most appropriate type like ViewResult and PartialViewResult?

Answer 1

Of course they can have a ViewResult or PartialViewResult return type in this case. But what benefit exactly would it give to you? What if later you decide that in some case (e.g. when the request comes from an Ajax call) you want to return JsonResult?

You typically do not handle the return value of an action method yourself. It’s processed behind the scenes by the MVC framework, so you really don’t care about the signature.