An empty block view outputs field code and displays

I'm posting here first in case I was doing something wrong, but I believe it's a bug. I didn't see another related issue in the queue.

I created a block view to pull out various fields from the node if the current page is a node. I am under the impression that if it doesn't find anything, it should be blank and therefore not display the block.

However, if the field returns empty, the view/block code still outputs html code wrappers around the fields. I am using attachments/upload field for this example, but have tried various other fields in other modules with the same result. This works as expected otherwise.

  <div class="view-content">
  <div class="views-field-upload-fid">
          <span class="field-content"></span>
  </div>
  </div>

Any ideas? A bug or something I set incorrectly?

The view code is as follows:

$view = new view;
$view->name = 'test_empty_block';
$view->description = 'Testing an empty block';
$view->tag = 'links test';
$view->view_php = '';
$view->base_table = 'node';
$view->is_cacheable = FALSE;
$view->api_version = 2;
$view->disabled = FALSE; /* Edit this to true to make a default view disabled initially */
$handler = $view->new_display('default', 'Defaults', 'default');
$handler->override_option('fields', array(
  'upload_fid' => array(
    'label' => '',
    'type' => 'separator',
    'separator' => ', ',
    'empty' => '',
    'link_to_file' => 0,
    'only_listed' => 0,
    'exclude' => 0,
    'id' => 'upload_fid',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'upload_fid',
    'relationship' => 'none',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('arguments', array(
  'nid' => array(
    'default_action' => 'default',
    'style_plugin' => 'default_summary',
    'style_options' => array(),
    'wildcard' => 'all',
    'wildcard_substitution' => 'All',
    'title' => '',
    'default_argument_type' => 'node',
    'default_argument' => '',
    'validate_type' => 'none',
    'validate_fail' => 'not found',
    'break_phrase' => 0,
    'not' => 0,
    'id' => 'nid',
    'table' => 'node',
    'field' => 'nid',
    'override' => array(
      'button' => 'Override',
    ),
    'relationship' => 'none',
    'default_options_div_prefix' => '',
    'default_argument_user' => 0,
    'default_argument_fixed' => '453',
    'default_argument_php' => 'if ($view->build_type == \'block\' && arg(0) == \'node\' && is_numeric(arg(1))) {
          //$node=node_load(arg(1));
          //$args[0] = $node->uid;
          $args[0] = arg(1);
        }
        return $args;',
    'validate_argument_node_type' => array(
      'audio' => 0,
      'event_college' => 0,
      'page' => 0,
      'pagecareers' => 0,
      'pagedevelopment' => 0,
      'pageresearch' => 0,
      'pagestudyabroad' => 0,
      'pageugs' => 0,
      'service' => 0,
      'story' => 0,
    ),
    'validate_argument_node_access' => 0,
    'validate_argument_nid_type' => 'nid',
    'validate_argument_vocabulary' => array(
      '2' => 0,
      '3' => 0,
      '1' => 0,
    ),
    'validate_argument_type' => 'tid',
    'validate_argument_php' => '',
  ),
));
$handler->override_option('access', array(
  'type' => 'none',
  'role' => array(),
  'perm' => '',
));
$handler->override_option('title', 'Images (TESTING)');
$handler->override_option('empty_format', '1');
$handler->override_option('items_per_page', 20);
$handler->override_option('row_options', array(
  'inline' => array(),
  'separator' => '',
));
$handler = $view->new_display('block', 'Block', 'block_1');
$handler->override_option('block_description', 'TESTING block - related image');