[hbrn]

I think the idea is that instead of thinking "here's the object I'm serializing" you should think "here's the view (endpoint) I'm serializing for".

Contrary to what people usually think, the shape of the serialized object is typically defined by the API endpoint, not by the object itself. Different endpoints can (and will) serve different shapes of the same object.

Even if two endpoints serve the same shape today, they can deviate tomorrow. When this happens, most people are trying to resolve it through DRF inheritance, which is wrong.