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I don't think it's particularly useful to think of unit as an empty tuple specifically, that is just an arbitrary but convenient definition for it.

Really a unit type is just one that contains only a single value. This is a unit in the same way that 1 is a unit for the integers. With some hand waving it is an identity for product types, for example (int, ()) is the "same" (xxxmorphic yada yada) as int

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Mildly disagree with your first statement. Well, I mostly agree that it's not particularly helpful for newcomers.

As a 0-tuple, it becomes a specific case of a more general concept -- there is some beauty/usefulness in not having to have a "special" construct for "Unit", which is (in a sense) not just "any" unit type. It also "justifies" the syntax of `()` and notes that it is a product type, all the while fitting into the idea of the "cardinality" of `(a1, a2, ..., an)` being the product of the cardinalities of each of its type params.

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