@Override
        public void insertAsEarliest(final long timestamp, final byte[] valueOrNull) {
            final ValueAndValueSize value = new ValueAndValueSize(valueOrNull);

            if (isDegenerate) {
                initializeWithRecord(value, timestamp, nextTimestamp);
            } else {
                final int lastIndex = find(minTimestamp, false).index;
                doInsert(timestamp, value, lastIndex + 1);
            }
        }
This value will be null if the caller did not specify that the value should be
included with the return result from {@link SegmentValue#find(long, boolean)}.
In this case, it is up to the caller to not call this method, as the "value"
returned will not be meaningful.
streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/state/internals/RocksDBVersionedStoreSegmentValueFormatter.java