Currently, dtype='numeric' is defined as "dtype is preserved unless array.dtype is object". This seems overly lenient and strange behaviour, as in #9342 where @qinhanmin2014 shows that check_array(['a', 'b', 'c'], dtype='numeric') works without error and produces an array of strings! This behaviour is not tested and it's hard to believe that it is useful and intended. Perhaps we need a deprecation cycle, but I think dtype='numeric' should raise an error, or attempt to coerce, if the data does not actually have a numeric, real-valued dtype.