I also experience this in Creative mode.

What I expected to happen was...:
NOT seeing "torchless" torch flame animations where there are no torches.

What actually happened was...:
In an area where I see torches nearby (near enough where I get the flame animation*) (and usually when there are torches in the distance, where I cannot see the flame animation) I see (single frames?) of torch animation where there are no torches.

It seems as if the animations are teleporting, between torches, similar to when an enderman teleports from one location to another. For example, I sometimes see the enderman in a location between where he was before he teleported and where he was after he teleported.

*By "flame animation" I mean the part of the torch (not the black smoke) which moves (is animated) ... which slowly gets smaller until it disappears and is replaced with the larger flame, which again, slowly gets smaller...etc.

It might be that when a flame animation starts (when it is the biggest) or when it disappears (right after it is the smallest) that this anomaly occurs

The effect occurs very quickly (single frame each only?) and appears to happen more often the more torches are visible.

Steps to Reproduce:
One example – Facing a stone/cobblestone wall 3 blocks high, by 10 blocks wide, with a torch on each available 30 (3 x 10) wall space.

Another example – with the above wall to the right, facing out a 3 high by 5 wide glass wall, where there are visible torches in the distance (40+ meters away) but no flame animation visible on those distant torches.