I think I understand now -- the change includes only empty strings. Completely removing the complete `value` part from the if statement (`if (row.columns[i].name != 'KEY') { `) would also include null columns, which then would break in the decoder (`TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of null`).

However, if we add a check to not call the decoder on such null values, we get a different error in `testSimpleDelete`: now the assertion on the number returned columns fails (columns are returned by none are expected).