Hi Chuck,

As a developer I have only had to use the Blank Component a few times. 

The most recent time I can think of is when a Article Reveal was used at the end of the page followed by a QuickNav extension at the very bottom. A block that wasn't attached to an Article Reveal article was required to get the QuickNav to show. 

I don't bother attaching a single width blank with any single width components on their own. As you said there is no need to.