Get nav menu items by location
WordPress default get_nav_menu_items() function uses the menu name as identifier to retrieve the right menu items. I think it is better to retrieve the menu items by location since the menu name is a value which can be changed in the database and the location is hardcoded in your functions.php file by registering the menu.
/**
* Get nav menu items by location
*
* @param $location The menu location id
*/
function get_nav_menu_items_by_location( $location, $args = [] ) {
// Get all locations
$locations = get_nav_menu_locations();
// Get object id by location
$object = wp_get_nav_menu_object( $locations[$location] );
// Get menu items by menu name
$menu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items( $object->name, $args );
// Return menu post objects
return $menu_items;
}