Why does pipe inside if() function fail when first argument is referred with a '.'

I spent 45 mins to get a very simple if() inside a loop to work, but I want to understand why it was failing in the first place.

It's a simple R Magrittr pipe chain with a if() condition in braces {}

Here's the simplified reprex (reproducible example)

library(tidyverse) # load tidyverse library

# function to check the data type of a column

# Fails
check1 <- function(.df, .colm)
{
  .df %>%
     { if(. %>% pull(var = ) %>% is.character()) 1 else 2} # pull .colm from .df and check if is char

}

# Works
check2 <- function(.df, .colm)
{
  .df %>%
    {if(pull(., var = ) %>% is.character()) 1 else 2} # pull .colm from .df and check if is char
  
}

check1(a, a1) # Fails
#> Error in eval(lhs, parent, parent): object 'a' not found
check2(a, a1) # Works
#> Error in eval(lhs, parent, parent): object 'a' not found

^{Created on 2021-03-29 by the reprex package (v0.3.0)}

Also do let me know if there's a simpler way to do what I'm trying to do