Timezone Serialization Issue with Laravel Eloquent created_at and updated_at Timestamps

I've encountered a challenge related to timezones and serialization in Laravel Eloquent models. I've configured the timezone in config/app.php to 'Asia/Baghdad,' and the PostgreSQL database also uses the same timezone. When inserting and retrieving values from a timestamp column, everything works as expected.

However, I've noticed an issue specifically with the created_at and updated_at timestamps. While the values are stored correctly in the database according to the configured timezone, serialization to JSON or array format for frontend responses converts the datetime to UTC.

I've found two solutions that involve manually handling timezone conversion in each model:

first:

protected function getCreatedAtAttribute($value) { return Carbon::parse($value)->tz(config('app.timezone'))->toDateTimeString(); }

protected function getUpdatedAtAttribute($value) { return Carbon::parse($value)->tz(config('app.timezone'))->toDateTimeString(); }

second:

protected function serializeDate(DateTimeInterface $date) { return $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); }

My concern is why these solutions are necessary in the first place. Shouldn't Laravel automatically use the application-wide timezone specified in config/app.php for serialization across all models? It feels like there might be an improvement or clarification needed in Laravel's default behavior regarding this aspect.

If anyone has insights or suggestions on a more streamlined approach or if this is an expected behavior, I would appreciate the community's input.