>>Empty project with nothing in it was introduced in MVC 4 and VS 2012. Prior to that empty project did have some stuff in it.
>
>So it wasn't 'empty' :-}
>I tend to look at the other templates to see how they are set up and then start from scratch so that I don't end up with un-needed 'crap' in the app :-}

I think Empty project is for more advanced developers. I prefer to start the new project with default ASP.NET MVC 4 application and update stuff inside it.