User get calls returning an empty user instead of null

Our testing environment is on version 13.0.2.33658 and while testing we noticed that user API calls and $core_v2_user.Get() functionality are returning an empty user object instead of null if the user doesn't exist. This results in multiple widgets and dlls failing basic if loops as the statement if($userResponse) will always return true instead of retuning false as it did in version 12.X.