Splatting an empty array results in execution of subsequent operators

[danwatford]

Describe the bug
When splatting an empty array, it is expected that subsequent operators in a pipeline are not processed, however when testing with v4.45.4, we find that subsequent operators are being executed.

Version of yq: 4.45.4
Operating system: Linux (RHEL 9.5)
Installed via: wget https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/latest/download/yq_linux_amd64 -O /usr/bin/yq

Command

yq --null-input --output-format json '[] | .[] | "start-" + . + "-end"'

Actual behavior
Outputs:

"start-"

Expected behavior

No output was expected

Additional context
Expected behaviour was observed with version 4.44.5

[candrews]

Is there a workaround, some way that the expression can be changed and still work with the current version of yq?