Is it possible to have lightweight checkouts to avoid cloning the whole repository on the master node?

This is the same issue as is decribed on this page: https://support.cloudbees.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002991272-Why-is-my-multibranch-project-cloning-the-whole-repository-on-the-master

It's not a huge deal - the current workaround is to use reference repositories which makes the checkout relatively fast anyway. But it would be nice to have.