Of course empty blocks are better than no blocks. However, bridging block verification by mining empty blocks does not explain empty blocks after more than a ten minute break, and the suspicious high rate of empty blocks of Antpool.
Besides, it’s my understanding that current Bitcoin implementations can verify a complete block in less than five seconds today, in contrast to your 30 seconds.

Since Antpool has not explained their empty block rate, but rather defiantly stated that “[they] will continue mining empty blocks” while losing money in fees for producing them and clamoring for bigger blocks on the other hand, you’ll probably understand how ASICBOOST does make a plausible explanation.