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> modules which are files you import directly but if not in the same directory also still need an __init__.py which has tripped up probably 80% of the people I try to teach Python to.

Not necessary anymore since Python 3.3 (released in 2012).

Thanks, I went from a lifetime of Python 2.7 straight to 3.8 and missed this.

Still necessary for mypy (if you want type checks) and setuptools (if you want to publish library to pypi)

Directories with an __init__.py are not modules, they are packages. Modules are .py files

The __init__.py is also itself a module, which you import by importing the package. That's confusing, and not easily avoided!

Make it an empty file?

"Just make an empty file there" is the opposite of a solution to it being confusing!

With python you can also go pretty far without __init__.py IMO. Just put everything in a single directory.

Beginners trying this are still liable to make import cycles, which... sort of work? Depending on what you do with them? I feel like Go and Java have much better (and different) answers here; I wonder what a Python equivalent of the Java style would look like.