Debian package with no control file breaks metadata

Steps tp reproduce:

$ wget -q http://localhost:80081/artifactory/debian-local/pool/p/my-candidate/my-candidate_1.123_all.deb
$ candidate_name=my-candidate
$ release_deb=my-release_1.123_all.deb
$ release_name=my-release
$ ar x my-candidate_1.123_all.deb control.tar.gz
$ tar -zxf ./control.tar.gz ./control
$ sed -E -e 's/^(Package|Source|Provides|Description): my-candidate/\1: my-release/g' control
$ cp control.new control
$ gunzip control.tar.gz
$ tar --delete -f ./control.tar ./control
>> Skip this step to reproduce $ tar -rf ./control.tar --owner root --group root ./control
$ gzip control.tar
$ cp my-candidate_1.123_all.deb myrelease_1.123_all.deb
$ ar r my-release_1.123_all.deb control.tar.gz

Results

Metadata will fail on merge and cause issues:

apt-get update
...
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/repo.test.myorg.com_artifactory_debian-local_dists_jfrog_main_binary-amd64_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.