Now that the toolpaths clearly indicate when no paths are associated with them, there is no need to prevent the creation of empty toolpaths.
I like to do this just as part of structuring my model. I know I’ll be using this and that bits, so create toolpaths that object will be assigned to in the future. Right now I create a toolpath with some random object, then just delete it from the toolpath, but it’s silly I should have to do that.