If I recall correctly one of the most popular third party apps first released for the iPhone was a flashlight app that was a blank app with an icon and a name. Slightly more code than any of those under the hood, but I feel the idea is the same.
Straying further from empty-file-ness, but in a similar vein of low-effort apps in the early days of the iPhone was the controversial I Am Rich, which still makes me giggle:
> Send Me To Heaven (officially stylized as S.M.T.H.) is an Android application developed by Carrot Pop which measures the vertical distance that a mobile phone is thrown. Players compete against each other by seeking to throw their phones higher than others, often at the risk of damaging their phones.
While this was clearly an experiment etc, a "I am rich" showing off is still prevalent in most games these days with high ticket in-game purchases. Either of the variant that gives your character or base or whatever an appearance trait, or pay-to-win items that puts you high up on the leaderboards.
I find it ironic that Apple, which is now infamous for 700 dollar computer wheels and 999 dollar display stand, etc, was the party to swiftly ban such an experiment.
It was probably an oversight in the rules, as the entry's readme alludes to. They knew that by submitting this, the rules would be amended to be much more strict. Whether that includes requiring a compiler of some sort, I'm not sure. I doubt it - I would imagine the file just has to be 1 or more bytes now.