Eager loading models - Differences between ->getRelated('model') and ->model (db accesses)

Hello!

Using Phalcon's ORM, I found a strange thing.

I have 3 models with the appropriate relations defined between them - say m1 has one m2 (alias rel12), m2 has one m3 (alias rel23).

I am accessing the database using QueryBuilder, and I fetch the 3 models / row. I then iterate over the resultset and manually set the relations between the models received and store the "main" model in an array. This is an attempt to eager load the models I know I want in the future. Example:

$builder = $this->getModelsManager()->createBuilder();
$results = $builder
    ->columns("m1.*,m2.*,m3.*")
    ->addFrom("Models\M1","m1")
    ->join(
        "Models\M2",
        "m1.m2_id = m2.m2_id",
        "m2"
    )
    ->join(
        "Models\M3",
        "m2.m3_id = m3.m3_id",
        "m3"
    )
    ->getQuery()
    ->execute();

$arr = array();

foreach($results as $res) {
    $res->m2->rel23 = $res->m3;
    $res->m1->rel12 = $res->m2;
    $arr[] = $res->m1;
}

This way, I get an array with the main models I wanted (m1 models), and I can successfuly access its relation (r12), BUT NOT if I use the getRelated method.

Example:

echo $arr[0]->r12->m2_id; 
// Does not cause a database access to fetch the related model2.
echo $arr[0]->getRelated('r12')->m2_id
// Does cause a database access, fetching the already loaded model2.

So, I am not sure if this is just "how things are" or if this is an awkard consequence of my awkard manual setting of the related models. If the second case is true, is it a better way of doing this?

Thank you so much