`@distributed` fails silently when lacking `@sync` or reduction

For a simple example:

@distributed for (i, j) in Base.Iterators.product([1, 2], [3, 4])
    @show i + j; i + j
end

This should error, as in JuliaLang/Distributed.jl#57, but no error is reported. The code silently never runs the contents of the distributed loop. If you tack on a @sync or even put in a reduction, i.e. @distributed (*) then the error is reported properly.

This is relevant to my use-case where I set up a RemoteChannel and listen to it after running the @distributed loop asynchronously.

julia> versioninfo()
Julia Version 1.3.0
Commit 46ce4d7933 (2019-11-26 06:09 UTC)
Platform Info:
  OS: Linux (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
  CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7200U CPU @ 2.50GHz
  WORD_SIZE: 64
  LIBM: libopenlibm
  LLVM: libLLVM-6.0.1 (ORCJIT, skylake)

Start by reproducing the supplied @distributed loop on the reported Julia 1.3 setup, comparing it with the @sync and reduction forms. Read the @distributed entry point and related behavior around RemoteChannel and JuliaLang/Distributed.jl#57. Done means the missing @sync or reduction condition reports the expected error instead of silently skipping the loop body.