No more get_option(‘date_time’) in WordPress 5.5?

Okay I found the issue, it’s like I thought. The problem is that get_option( 'date_time' ) return just false.

The change happened in the funtion get_the_date().

In WordPress 5.4 is looked like that in the general-template.php:

function get_the_date( $format="", $post = null ) {
    $post = get_post( $post );

    if ( ! $post ) {
        return false;
    }

    if ( '' == $format ) {
        $the_date = get_post_time( get_option( 'date_format' ), false, $post, true );
    } else {
        $the_date = get_post_time( $format, false, $post, true );
    }


    return apply_filters( 'get_the_date', $the_date, $format, $post );
}

Since WordPress 5.5 the general-template.php looks like that:

function get_the_date( $format="", $post = null ) {
    $post = get_post( $post );

    if ( ! $post ) {
        return false;
    }

    if ( '' === $format ) {
        $the_date = get_post_time( get_option( 'date_format' ), false, $post, true );
    } else {
        $the_date = get_post_time( $format, false, $post, true );
    }

    return apply_filters( 'get_the_date', $the_date, $format, $post );
}

The difference is just in the type true comparison operators

// WordPress 5.4
if ( '' == $format )

// vs

// WordPress 5.5
if ( '' === $format )

Bugfix?!

I think the correct solution would be to check for and empty or false $format. Something like that:

if ( '' === $format || false === $format )