"multiple parameter sets" there is a much more common case
which works equally well for INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE e.g.
executemany().   reference #3476

for an insert from select are the string names, and not
the Column objects.  The MSSQL dialect in particular relies upon
checking for these keys in params to know if identity insert
should be on.  references #3360

repaired to work more usefully with tables that have Python-
side default values and/or functions, as well as server-side
defaults. The feature will now work with a dialect that uses
"positional" parameters; a Python callable will also be
invoked individually for each row just as is the case with an
"executemany" style invocation; a server- side default column
will no longer implicitly receive the value explicitly
specified for the first row, instead refusing to invoke
without an explicit value. fixes #3288

defaults if otherwise unspecified; the limitation where non-
server column defaults aren't included in an INSERT FROM
SELECT is now lifted and these expressions are rendered as
constants into the SELECT statement.

on :class:`.Insert`.  This helps to fix a bug where an
INSERT...FROM SELECT construct would inadvertently be compiled
as "implicit returning" on supporting backends, which would
cause breakage in the case of an INSERT that inserts zero rows
(as implicit returning expects a row), as well as arbitrary
return data in the case of an INSERT that inserts multiple
rows (e.g. only the first row of many).
A similar change is also applied to an INSERT..VALUES
with multiple parameter sets; implicit RETURNING will no longer emit
for this statement either.  As both of these constructs deal
with varible numbers of rows, the
:attr:`.ResultProxy.inserted_primary_key` accessor does not
apply.   Previously, there was a documentation note that one
may prefer ``inline=True`` with INSERT..FROM SELECT as some databases
don't support returning and therefore can't do "implicit" returning,
but there's no reason an INSERT...FROM SELECT needs implicit returning
in any case.   Regular explicit :meth:`.Insert.returning` should
be used to return variable numbers of result rows if inserted
data is needed.
fixes #3169

sqlalchemy/orm, sqlalchemy/event, sqlalchemy/testing