Why would you prioritize stale share rate over publishing a useful solved block?  I fail to see how pushing an empty block through provides any worth to the Bitcoin network.

If the purpose of having blocks is to record transactions, and the purpose of having a blockchain is to have a record of those transaction, why send an empty block?  What purpose does it serve?  What benefit to the network does it provide?  Why does the solver deserve 25BTC for an empty block?  Does this have a false impact on difficulty adjustment since the block is solved so quickly, yet has no value (other than to the solver)?