[bgturner]

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/65817

Fixes the one remaining nullCoalesce.property error and removes tests/phpstan/baselines/nullCoalesce.property.neon.

The error

src/wp-includes/general-template.php:4986
Property WP_Query::$max_num_pages (int) on left side of ?? is not nullable.

WP_Query::$max_num_pages defaults to 0 and is never null, so ?? 1 in paginate_links() never ran.

The fix

Swap ?? for ?:, which falls back on any falsy value, including 0. This matches what the function's own docblock already claims: "Default is the value WP_Query's max_num_pages or 1."

Why this is safe

This is narrower than the attempt in #13982, where a reviewer asked for this exact line to be reverted because it also added a null-guard around $wp_query itself and broke get_query_var( 'paged' ). This PR doesn't touch $wp_query's nullability -- only the fallback condition on one property that can never be null.

A new test, test_paginate_links_falls_back_to_global_query_with_zero_max_num_pages, pins the only caller-visible path through this line (max_num_pages = 0 returns null, since paginate_links() treats totals under 2 the same way) and passes identically before and after this change.

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[bgturner]

Closed accidentally by a branch rename (GitHub's branch-rename API deleted the old ref instead of retargeting this PR). Same commits now live at #15475.