v1.7-8 performance: ProductController::assignAttributesCombinations() seems unused since v1.6

[the-ge]

Prerequisites

• I understand and accept the project's code of conduct.
• I have already searched in existing issues and found no previous report of this bug.

Describe the bug and add attachments

The product page loads slower as the combinations count increase, which is normal. What's not normal is that most of the resources are consumed by the ProductController::assignAttributesCombinations() method, which assigns an array of attribute combinations (its size being the count of attributes x count of product combinations, i.e. 4 x 5000 in my case) as a Smarty template variable. Recent improvements directed at this are #34453 and #36039.

The thing is, this template variable seems to have been last used in PrestaShop v1.6.

So my question is: am I right in believing this method can be disposed altogether? I'd like to have some confirmations before starting a pull request.

The method is defined in lines 882-901 and called in line 381, in the develop branch version of /controllers/front/ProductController.php.

Expected behavior

I'd expect that template variable to be used somewhere. But if it can be disposed of, it means that the product page went all this time with the handbrake on, Rock Lee style.

Steps to reproduce

1. The best way to test my assumption would be to run the testing suite included in PrestaShop, but I don't know how to do it without creating a pull request.
2. One thing I've done is searching the Smarty template variable's name in PrestaShop's code. That's how I found out that it was last used in 1.6.
3. Another thing I've done is commenting the method call and accessing the product page, which should've broken something, but apparently it didn't.

PrestaShop version(s) where the bug happened

1.7 to 9.0

PHP version(s) where the bug happened

Not relevant.

If your bug is related to a module, specify its name and its version

No response

Your company or customer's name goes here (if applicable).

No response

[ChillCode]

Well, seems you're right again, attributesCombinations & attribute_anchor_separator are never used, let's see.

Really nice catch I guess.

[ChillCode]

After one week I commented that line on a site with some products with almost 1000 combinations the LCP just improved by 0,4', GoogleBot is more happy now, thanks for the find.