Plugin running wp-cron.php request?

I found the following code in the plugin after finding an unexpected wp-cron.php request (which was returned 403). Should this be disabled when WP_CRON is set to false? Isn’t there another/better way of doing this without creating a wp-cron request on the backend?

/**
 * Get the basic authentication check status.
 *
 * @return bool
 */
function mdd_basic_auth_check() {
  // Get any existing copy of our transient data
  if ( false === ( $request = get_transient( 'mdd_wp_cron_request' ) ) ) {
    // It wasn't there, so regenerate the data and save the transient
    $url     = site_url( 'wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron' );
    $request = wp_remote_request( $url );
    set_transient( 'mdd_wp_cron_request', $request, 12 * HOUR_IN_SECONDS );
  }

  if ( is_wp_error( $request ) ) {
    return true;
  }

  if ( isset( $request['headers']['www-authenticate'] ) ) {
    return true;
  }

  if ( 401 === $request['response']['code'] ) {
    return true;
  }

  return false;
}