There might be various reason why the STAC catalogue/item/asset data is not be available, be it reprocessing, migration, metaphysical ghosts, ...
The most sense might be at asset description as this allows some room to breath if other assets are available already or not.
Making this information directly visible can help, not only the users, but also the data curators.
See and add any suggestions to the PR at STAC Product extension: stac-extensions/product#11
This is (should be) good practice for any data provider.