) -> Union[DefaultPlaceholder, DefaultType]:
    """
    Pass items or `DefaultPlaceholder`s by descending priority.

    The first one to _not_ be a `DefaultPlaceholder` will be returned.

    Otherwise, the first item (a `DefaultPlaceholder`) will be returned.
    """
    items = (first_item,) + extra_items
    for item in items:
        if not isinstance(item, DefaultPlaceholder):
            return item

            # Create a clone of the field, so that a Pydantic submodel is not returned
            # as is just because it's an instance of a subclass of a more limited class
            # e.g. UserInDB (containing hashed_password) could be a subclass of User
            # that doesn't have the hashed_password. But because it's a subclass, it
            # would pass the validation and be returned as is.

        * This avoids/fixes a potential security issue: as the returned object is passed directly to Pydantic, if the returned object was a subclass of the `response_model` (e.g. you return a `UserInDB` that inherits from `User` but contains extra fields, like `hashed_password`, and `User` is used in the `response_model`), it would still pass the validation (because `UserInDB` is a subclass of `User`) and the object would be returned as-is, including the `hashed_password`. To fix this, the declared...