The global $link was a little generic, and I'd be worried it would be overwritten in a sprawling codebase. Converted it (and the global_link_identifier) function to a static class property/function.
The mysqli_result type hinting was causing fatal errors. Removed the type hint and added a "result validator" to return bool true/false (with a warning). To better emulate the original behaviour.
The global $link was a little generic, and I'd be worried it would be overwritten in a sprawling codebase. Converted it (and the global_link_identifier) function to a static class property/function.
The mysqli_result type hinting was causing fatal errors. Removed the type hint and added a "result validator" to return bool true/false (with a warning). To better emulate the original behaviour.