If I update an object model It’s because I want to expose new fields. Else I actively have to tell it not to.
It feels like a normal use case.
- A few times, we inadvertently exposed internal fields. They were not sensitive, just internal. Still, clients discovered and started using them and effectively blocked us from changing the data schema without updating the API version.
- A risk of inadvertently exposing sensitive fields. We never had this, but the mere fact that it was too easy to have, kept unnecessary pressure on us.
- Adjusting the serialization format for different purposes became a problem. When everything is a dict, it's difficult to bolt in custom serialization logic. We had this issue when we had to support different API versions, different object representations for different clients, or different purposes. For example, when we cache an object, we want to keep all the fields, but when we return it to an object, we need to maintain the subset of them.
- Slower onboarding. When a newcomer joins the project, they need to be aware that any database change may leak as an API attribute. They couldn't start working before they saw the whole picture.