That would make it a rational number, so we can rule that out
The thing that is actually special about the digit 0 is that it is implied for all positions for which no digit is given. That is, when we write
1.2
…00000001.20000000…0 recurring represents the end of a quantity, and the absence of any further quantity, forever.
Eg: 0.012500000000000...
The significant portion is 0.0125 - the recurring zeroes serve a mathematical role akin to that of a full-stop in a sentence. Hence zero being (jokingly, but in a sense truthfully) always the "last digit".
I will grant that in base-π, π is 10, however.
Proof: the first digit of pi is 3, not zero.
That aside, the apparent "empty space" on the either side of a number is in reality consisting of infinite zeroes.
Just because we typically choose to "display" most numbers without those zeroes, it doesn't mean they aren't there in a very real, practical and important sense.
They are there, because if they aren't there, then something else might be, and then all our numbers would have to be assumed to be wrong or incomplete... so instead, we assume the zeroes.
The terrible reality is the zeroes extend off infinitely in either direction, and we use empty space as shorthand for this so we don't have to spend longer than the age of the universe to write a single number with full accuracy.