For me, yes. It is a loading indicator, without any additional "noise".
Also, the second-to-last pass is often quite good, if not indistinguishable from the last one. So you have the full image already, while more details get filled in, instead of first having the top, then the middle, then the bottom, and to me that's less "jarring".
Just use the title link as a reference. First you see chicken wings, then all of a sudden 6 piglets.
The transition paint is really meaningless.