Schema `preload_order` cannot be overriden by passing ordered query

[sabiwara]

Elixir version

Elixir 1.17.3 (compiled with Erlang/OTP 27)

Database and Version

PostgreSQL 17.0

Ecto Versions

ecto 3.12.4

Database Adapter and Versions (postgrex, myxql, etc)

postgrex 0.19.2

Current behavior

# in Blog.Comment schema
   ...
   field(:likes, :integer)

# in Blog.Post schema
  ...
  has_many(:comments, Comment, preload_order: [asc: :likes])
  
# in Blog context
  query = from(p in Post, preload: [comments: ^from(c in Comment, order_by: [desc: :likes])])
  Repo.all(query)

# => results ordered by ascending likes
  comments: [%Comment{likes: 1, ...}, %Comment{likes: 42, ...}]

Expected behavior

I would have expected the order_by from the preload query (^from(c in Comment, order_by: [desc: :likes])]) to take precedence over the schema ordering preload_order: [asc: :likes].

If however, it is not a bug but an expected feature, would it be possible to achieve this in some other way?

• setting some default ordering in the schema, which works most of the times
• in some specific function, we need a different ordering overriding the default