TopicExists can return a transient false-negative for a topic that is in
fact present (a broker/filer blip under load, or a just-created topic whose
existence cache is still stale). The metadata and produce handlers then tried
to auto-create, hit "topic already exists", treated that as a failure, and
dropped the topic from the Metadata response - so the client saw a spurious
UNKNOWN_TOPIC_OR_PARTITION right after the topic was created.
Return a sentinel ErrTopicAlreadyExists from the create paths and add
ensureTopicExists, which treats it as confirmation the topic exists. It also
folds in the repeated TopicExists -> invalidate -> recheck -> create logic
shared by every metadata handler (v0-v8) and both produce paths. v2+ produce
now auto-creates too, matching the auto.create.topics.enable=true behavior the
rest of the gateway already simulates.