Typescript and definitions for non-standard modules

So, basically the issue is this: With the typings module being deprecated and type definitions coming in directly from npm itself I have an issue with a Meteor module, namely react-meteor-data.

I’m using barbatus:typescript and even though it’s a bit out of date at this point, I have no other issues.

The Meteor guide for React tells me to use

import { withTracker } from 'meteor/react-meteor-data';

if I want to use React and Meteor in combination. Visual Studio Code promptly tells me for this line of code that it cannot find the module.
Fine. Since the react-meteor-data.d.ts definitions from typings are out of date anyway, I created my own definitions file.
Worked for a second, then “module not found”. I finally gave up and did this:

declare module 'meteor/react-meteor-data';

Which, as I understand it, should have short-circuited any type errors and simply cast the whole module to any.

Which it didn’t. I’m still getting “module not found” in VS Code.

The site itself works just fine, by the way.

So, any hints as to what I have to do differently?