DTOs can be redundant, prove me wrong!

Hi,

I recently read spaties "beyond crud" blog post and everything from the folder structure, to the actions and state made sense to me, but the DTO's didn't.

If we look at this quote

"First of all: we already established that DTOs are the entry point for data into the codebase. As soon as we're working with data from the outside, we want to convert it to a DTO"

That tells me that all data (3rd party APIs, internal APIS, everything!) should use DTOs.

So when I build an API-first laravel app I usually do this :

UserController

<?php

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function store(StoreUserRequest $request)
    {
        $this->authorize('create', User::class);
        return User::create($request->all());
    }
}

But with DTOs, I feel like I just add a bunch of redundant code for no reason

UserController

<?php

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function store(StoreUserRequest $request)
    {
        $userData = tap(new UserData)->fromRequest($request);
        $this->authorize('create', User::class);
        return User::create($userData->toArray());
    }
}

UserData DTO

<?php

namespace Domain\User\DTOs;

use Domain\User\Models\User;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Spatie\DataTransferObject\DataTransferObject;

class UserData extends DataTransferObject
{
    public string $email;
    public bool $is_admin;
    public bool $is_moderator;
    public bool $is_worker;
    public bool $is_active;
    public string $name;
    public ?string $phone;
    public ?int $hourly_cost;

    public function fromRequest(Request $request)
    {
        return new self([
            'email' => $request->get('email'),
            'is_admin' => $request->get('is_admin'),
            'is_moderator' => $request->get('is_moderator'),
            'is_worker' => $request->get('is_worker'),
            'is_active' => $request->get('is_active'),
            'name' => $request->get('name'),
            'phone' => $request->get('phone'),
            'hourly_cost' => $request->get('hourly_cost'),
        ]);
    }

    public function fromModel(User $user)
    {
        return new self([
            'email' => $user->email,
            'is_admin' => $user->is_admin,
            'is_moderator' => $user->is_moderator,
            'is_worker' => $user->is_worker,
            'is_active' => $user->is_active,
            'name' => $user->name,
            'phone' => $user->phone,
            'hourly_cost' => $user->hourly_cost,
        ]);
    }
}

I can understand why using DTOs for external APIs are a good idea, but for my applications internal http requests that has an indirect relationship to to a model, I don't get it.

Here is how I compare them

DTO

• Takes unknown data and make it known
• Is a class

Model

• Takes uknown data and make it known
• Is a class

So when I want to add an attribute to my table, not only do I have to

• add it to my validation
• add it to my model ($fillable, $searchable)
• add it to my policies
• add it to one or more resources

I also have to add it to my DTO!?

"My point of view is that we should embrace the framework, instead of trying to fight it; though we should embrace it in such a way that large projects stay maintainable."

Taking this quote into account, DTOs on application is fighting the framework by adding redundant code.

I am confused, scared and sad. Can someone help me on this.