Hello, in example https://dojo.telerik.com/ahepILiP, if field is nullable: true, then default value not used.
In version 2019.2.619 of kendo ui mvc wrappers for all srting values initialize "nullabe: true"
changes: Kendo.Mvc/UI/DataSource/ModelDescriptor.cs
+ IsNullable = p.ModelType.Name == "String" ? true : p.IsNullableValueType
And all my default values for string fields is null, if remove this changes then work fine.