load_relation causes compilation error when used with ref

[kalanyuz]

I'm following this documentation

{% set relation_exists = (load_relation(ref('my_model')) is not none %}
{% if relation_exists %}
      {{ log("my_model has already been built", info=true) }}
{% else %}
      {{ log("my_model doesn't exist in the warehouse. Maybe it was dropped?", info=true) }}
{% endif %}

When I run this snippet, I'll get the "my model doesn't exist" log, followed by a compilation error. This feels off since there would be no point in using this function to test if a relation exists if I can't use it with either ref or source.
Using adapter.get_relation would help solve the issue since it won't raise an error, but that entails with referring to the source database instead of assuming that a model exists.