This has been documented and has appeared to have been fixed in versions as far back as 1.14 according to this website, but this issue still appears in modern version 1.20.4.

When using the /locate command within a world that has the "Generate Structures" tab turned off when creating the world, the game will freeze for a couple of minutes. The player is able to break and place blocks. However, the player cannot interact with entities, drop items, interact with blocks (i.e. chests, crafting tables, etc.), cannot light portals, cannot use items (ender pearls, bow and arrows, etc.), blocks will not interact with each other (water and lava will not mix to create stone, cobblestone, or obsidian), mobs will not be affected by blocks (lava and fire will not damage them), commands will not work, and finally the world will jump forward to anything you have done (hop into minecart as shown, open furnaces, drop items, etc.) but will not affect mobs or other entities, and then freeze and slow down until eventually crashing.

Here's the error code I got the first time I let the game crash, without stopping it through other means: -1073740940.