I'm new to feathers, so my suggestion may be the same as #2445
Please close this request if this is the case.
I need to use $populate on the server. I do not want to allow the client to send a query using $populate.
As it is, I need to whitelist $populate in the service so I can use it on the server. This also allows the client to send a query with $populate.
Extra coding has to be done to ensure the client does not send a $populate parameter. I would like to easily not allow the client to use $populate, but still use it on the server.