Difference in Empty when using CurrentValue versus not

I was looking over my speed test docs from 2021. These were regarding using CurrentValue.ColumnName versus ColumnName in your filter formulas.

I noticed today that using CurrentValue explicitly also changes the Empty output.

If you use CurrentValue, the returned Empty column is blank. If you don’t use CurrentValue explicitly in the same formula, it returns an empty array “[]”.

I wonder if the visual “blank” and visual “[]” have any effect on formulas that use these columns.