Though it seems if we accept List<javax.faces.model.SelectItem> as a model, we should accept child f:selectItems as a model, upon deeper inspection, the component tree is a very ill suited place to keep the model for the list.
f:selectItem isn't mutable, so these would only be worthwhile in lists where you never want to reorder or migrate your items. Not worth persuing.
f:selectItems may be mutable, despite not being indented for that use. But then f:selectItems is essentially acting as extra markup to define what you could've defined as part of the value property of the list itself. Redundant.
Improvement
Minor
Though it seems if we accept List<javax.faces.model.SelectItem> as a model, we should accept child f:selectItems as a model, upon deeper inspection, the component tree is a very ill suited place to keep the model for the list.
f:selectItem isn't mutable, so these would only be worthwhile in lists where you never want to reorder or migrate your items. Not worth persuing.
f:selectItems may be mutable, despite not being indented for that use. But then f:selectItems is essentially acting as extra markup to define what you could've defined as part of the value property of the list itself. Redundant.