Why does the New menu even exist for creating new empty files?
"Create a thing <i>here</i>" is a really powerful interaction. You often start the process of creation by navigating near the relevant bit (path in the file system, module in the codebase, etc), and then realize that you need a new file/class/method/whatever in the specific place you're looking. A consistently-available "New" menu seems like a good primitive in the computing experience.