I've opened an issue for that.
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/issues/1452
According to API payload is same on ECHO message.
I feel this should be handled/fixed in lib, but I have no idea how to do...
If it is not possible to fix in lib, it shall not be allowed to send message with no payload anymore, which controller has to make sure then.
@rejoe2
Regarding FHEM, at the moment we should keep it as it is. No payload is not the normal use case.
I flashed gateway with 2.2.0 and this fixed the problem for me.