For an initial page request, Restore View is more about making sure the necessary Models are all present. They will be constructed if they don't already exist and populated with any managed properties. And for more recent
JEE implementations, if there's a @PostConstruct on a Model object, that method will be execured.
The Render Response phase is where the Model property values are actually retrieved and used to populate the HTML that's being generated by Render Response.
The actual construction of the dropdown menu model properties (selectitem list and value) is done by your Model code. This can be done by the constructor, by @PostConstruct, or when a "get" method is invoked. I often construct my SelectItem lists on their first "get" and cache them for the benefit of subsequent "get" requests. That makes it easy to update the list, since all that's required to trigger a new list construction is to invalidate the old list.
On Postback handling, when an Action method is invoked, the Action can modify the Model data. Whatever changes the Action logic makes to the Model are reflected when the response is rendered.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.