Basically any time you get close to another player (within the 1km net bubble) or user objects (bases, fences, crates, hidden stashes, etc) you get a lag spike.
This is bad as it becomes a tell-tale sign that either another player is nearby or user objects are (i.e. objects not placed on the vanilla map). Players use this meta to ambush other players which ruins the game. Same for user objects as many apparently use this to raid bases by just running around the map looking for lag spikes.
Could an async-load of data or merging of network bubbles not be done to avoid these spikes (i.e. to feather in data (crates etc) and players so to speak). It might mean they "pop-in" under some circumstances but I'd rather that than the current lag spikes that given things away. I'll log a separate bug.
Personally speaking in terms of user objects and players "popping-in" I'd rather have unlimited (12km) draw distance that I as a player could set (similar to ARMA single player) than have draw distances restricted by servers (in DayZ or ARMA). If that means a massive base a hill doesn't show up 1km out so be it. I'd rather it pop-in as I approach (albeit from 1km+ away) than have the constant fog we see on most servers that starts just a couple of km out even on a clear day.