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

The bug

Ticking 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 32
6. /tp @s 8 -60 8 0 90
7. Repeat this test, but with render distance set to 2 and simulation distance set to 5

Expected results

There would not be any noticeable difference in performance between the above two settings - 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, especially as far as the graph on the right is concerned.