User-defined conversion operator is not called when the source string is the empty string

[Vivelin]

Destination type

    public class MessageTemplate : IWeighted
    {
        public const double DefaultWeight = 1.0d;

        public MessageTemplate()
        {
        }

        public MessageTemplate(string text)
        {
            Text = text;
        }

        public MessageTemplate(string text, double weight)
        {
            Text = text;
            Weight = weight;
        }

        public string Text { get; set; }

        [DefaultValue(DefaultWeight)]
        public double Weight { get; set; } = DefaultWeight;

        public static implicit operator MessageTemplate(string value)
        {
            return new MessageTemplate(value);
        }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return Text;
        }

Source JSON

[ "Value", "" ]

Steps to reproduce

const string json = "[\"Value\", \"\"]";
var result = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MessageTemplate[]>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("Value", result[0].Text);
Assert.IsNotNull(result[1]); // AssertFailedException: 'Assert.IsNotNull failed. '

Expected behavior

Deserializing a JSON string to a type with a string conversion operator calls the operator with the JSON string, even if it represents the empty string.

Actual behavior

Deserializing a JSON string to a type with a string conversion operator calls the operator with the JSON string, unless the JSON string represents the empty string; then it does not call the conversion operator and instead returns null.

[ArsenijK]

Ran into same issue. Took some time to identify the problem. Can this be fixed?