When you use an ender pearl to an entity, you aren't fully next to it

When you use an ender pearl to an entity, you aren't fully next to it. You can test this by placing an armor stand, pressing F3+B to turn on hitboxes, and when you throw an ender pearl to it you'll notice you're standing pretty far from them; even the hitboxes are not close. If the ender pearl hits the eye level, however, you're close to it.