Is the backend Python and the frontend JavaScript? Because then that would happen and just be normal, because Boolean true is True in python.
Can't they just convert a "true" input to backend to uppercase

Depends on how it’s set up. If the setting is going into the env it’s a string, so I’d expect some sort of

if os.getenv("this_variable", "false").lower() == "true": # or maybe "in true, yes, on, 1" if you want to be weird like yaml this_variable = True else: this_variable = False

Except maybe a little more elegant and not typed on my phone.

But if the instructions are telling the user to edit the settings directly, like where I wrote this_variable=True, they’d need to case it correctly there.

Fyi, using a condition to assign a boolean is equivalent to assigning the condition itself. No need for the IF.
true, though sometimes i find the more verbose style easier to read, and more maintainable (eg: you want to do something else in the block, you can just add a line instead of changing your ternary / etc). Small things