A Response object contains all of the methods and contents of an HTTP request, to include potential DTOs appended to the response body. So, in that statement there, you're comparing a basket to a bag of fruit. The Response object is the basket, and a DTO is the bag of fruit that you place in the basket. You can return a Response object if you need to customize the response. Otherwise, you just return the DTO and the handling engine will create the Response object for you.