Claude (possible all LLMs, but I mostly use Claude) LOVES this pattern for some reason. "If <thing> fails/does not exist I'll just silently return a placeholder, that way things break silently and you'll tear your hair out debugging it later!" Thanks Claude
I will also add checks to make sure the data that I get is there even though I checked 8 times already and provide loads of logging statements and error handling. Then I will go to every client that calls this API and add the same checks and error handling with the same messaging. Oh also with all those checks I'm just going to swallow the error at the entry point so you don't even know it happened at runtime unless you check the logs. That will be $1.25 please.
"sure thing, I'll add logic to check if the real data exists and only use the fake data as a fallback in case the real data doesn't exist"