Rendering completely empty chunks still appears to have a considerable performance impact

The bug

Rendering entirely empty chunks, containing no blocks or entities, still appears to impact game performance to a considerable degree.

How to reproduce

1. Create a new The Void superflat world
2. Replace the central cobblestone block of the platform with a barrier
3. Destroy all of the stone blocks on the platform using your preferred method
4. Open the debug performance graph using F3+2
5. Set your render distance to 32 and simulation distance to 5
6. /tp @s 8 -60 8 45 0
7. /tp @s 8 -60 8 0 90

Expected results

There would not be any noticeable difference in performance between the above two commands - in neither case are any blocks or entities loaded besides the player and the barrier upon which it stands.

Actual results

There is, in fact, a considerable difference in performance.