When using

cy.get('input').should('have.value', '***')

it still returns the raw string, and as so far I've been unable to find a way to verify if the text in the input field is currently hidden or not

the best you can do (since it is outside of what you can reach in HTML or JS) is like this https://github.com/bahmutov/cypress-examples/commit/3041df8d34371bd5532b74aa221e0ce6d6a2c1f2

Oooh alright I will give this a go! Thanks so much 🤩