"annotations: {}" in the input is removed by kustomize while "labels: {}" isn't

[JordanGoasdoue]

What happened?

I've used kustomize successfully to add some changes to my helm, but i've seen that annotations: {} are being removed, while labels: {} or even a fake field i've added for testing purpose fake: {} are kept

What did you expect to happen?

I expect annotations: {} to stay and not being removed if it's present on the input

How can we reproduce it (as minimally and precisely as possible)?

# kustomization.yaml
resources:
  - resources.yaml

# resources.yaml
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: sa
  labels: {}
  annotations: {}
  fake: {}

Expected output

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  fake: {}
  labels: {}
  annotations: {}
  name: sa

Actual output

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  fake: {}
  labels: {}
  name: sa

Kustomize version

v5.4.1

Operating system

Linux

[koba1t]

I expect annotations: {} to stay and not being removed if it's present on the input

I think this behavior was made deliberately to avoid the problem of kptdev/kpt#541.
#2595

/triage under-consideration