https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html#packages
The __init__.py files are required to make Python treat directories containing the file as packages (unless using a namespace package, a relatively advanced feature). This prevents directories with a common name, such as string, from unintentionally hiding valid modules that occur later on the module search path. In the simplest case, __init__.py can just be an empty file, but it can also execute initialization code for the package or set the __all__ variable, described later.