Image blocking leaves whitespace

Prerequisites

• I verified that this is not a filter list issue. Report any issues with filter lists or broken website functionality in the uAssets issue tracker.
• This is NOT a YouTube, Facebook or Twitch report. These sites MUST be reported by clicking their respective links.
• This is not a support issue or a question. For support, questions, or help, visit /r/uBlockOrigin.
• I performed a cursory search of the issue tracker to avoid opening a duplicate issue.
• The issue is not present after disabling uBO in the browser.
• I checked the documentation to understand that the issue I am reporting is not normal behavior.

I tried to reproduce the issue when...

• uBO is the only extension.
• uBO uses default lists and settings.
• using a new, unmodified browser profile.

Description

When blocking images uBlock Origin often leaves whitespace. It should remove such whitespace.

A specific URL where the issue occurs.

https://ghacks.net
https://nos.nl
https://www.rtl.nl
https://www.volkskrant.nl/

Steps to Reproduce

1. Block images on mentioned sites
2. See whitespace left.

Expected behavior

The whitespace should be removed.

Troubleshooting information

uBlock Origin: 1.70.0
Firefox: 149
filterset (summary):
 network: 345802
 cosmetic: 117578
 scriptlet: 46764
 html: 3304
listset (total-discarded, last-updated):
 added:
  https://gitflic.ru/project/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-clean-filters/blob/raw?file=bpc-paywall-filter.txt: 1165-2, 22h.41m
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hansjansen2/no-comments/refs/heads/main/filter.txt: 30-0, 17h.59m
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist/main/list_uBlacklist.txt: 1674-15, 12h.41m
  fanboy-cookiemonster: 46192-104, 1d.21h.53m
  ublock-cookies-easylist: 5602-41, 1d.21h.53m
  fanboy-social: 17452-12, 1d.21h.53m
  fanboy-thirdparty_social: 69-15, 1d.21h.53m
  easylist-annoyances: 5089-40, 1d.21h.53m
  easylist-chat: 271-0, 1d.21h.53m
  fanboy-ai-suggestions: 232-1, 1d.21h.53m
  easylist-newsletters: 9170-28, 1d.21h.53m
  easylist-notifications: 2481-173, 1d.21h.53m
  [2 lists not shown]: [too many]
 default:
  user-filters: 10-0, never
  ublock-filters: 51265-81, 1h.8m Δ
  ublock-badware: 10928-30, 1h.8m Δ
  ublock-privacy: 3986-2, 1h.8m Δ
  ublock-unbreak: 2813-1, 1h.8m Δ
  ublock-quick-fixes: 444-13, 1h.8m Δ
  easylist: 95857-162, 1h.8m Δ
  adguard-spyware-url: 2478-134, 1d.21h.53m
  easyprivacy: 55648-33, 1h.8m Δ
  urlhaus-1: 26375-11, 12h.6m
  curben-phishing: 162646-50, 12h.6m
  plowe-0: 3519-1021, 9d.22h.28m
  LegitimateURLShortener: 2972-228, 8m
filterset (user): [array of 10 redacted]
switchRuleset:
 added: [array of 9 redacted]
hostRuleset:
 added: [array of 1 redacted]
userSettings:
 advancedUserEnabled: true
 userFiltersTrusted: true
hiddenSettings: [none]
supportStats:
 allReadyAfter: 617 ms (selfie)
 maxAssetCacheWait: 235 ms
 cacheBackend: indexedDB
popupPanel:
 blocked: 27
 network:
  volkskrant.nl: 18
  dpgmedia.cloud: 5
  googletagmanager.com: 1
  optoutadvertising.com: 1
  usabilla.com: 1
  visualwebsiteoptimizer.com: 1
 extended:
  ##._18iyt9h0
  ##div[id][class][tabindex]:matches-css(before, content: /Adverte…
  ##.h1-container:has(> div[class]:matches-css(before, content: /A…

[krystian3w]

Perhaps the parent has a size (e.g. applied in background-image or div with height/width), the network filter (& rule) creates a cosmetic fallback on the default configuration reducing the size of the IMG tags to zero (fails for inline injected images in PICTURE tag, then I see gap about 1 character width (I doubt it's worth extending hiding after picutre:has([src*=blocked]) abstract)).