Gustaf,
After some more testing it seems I know where the problem lies. It seems the master template (blank-master.adp) contained
ad_page_contract {
} {
{item_id:integer 0}
{cid:integer 0}
{return_url ""}
}
which it did not agree with .. guess it did do the validation after all and it was the display template which had the 500 problem!
Jason