Can't this problem be fixed more simply by setting the I2C_AQ_NO_ZERO_LEN_READ adapter quirk flag, as in some of Wolfram Sang's recent commits?
I think so. Hmm, I searched the tree for potential candidates. Seems this slipped through :( For reference, I fixed it in another media driver with commit b5ae5a79825b ("media: usb: hdpvr: disable zero-length read messages").