A 200 response with empty data should not be treated like a network failure

A debugging observation about valid API responses that return empty arrays because filters or pagination matched nothing.

A 200 response with an empty array is often a contract clue, not a transport failure. The route worked, the server answered, and the client parsed JSON. Before adding retries, I would check filters, pagination, authentication environment, and whether the client is reading the right field. Empty data with total zero points to selection criteria. Empty data with a positive total points to cursor or page handling. Missing metadata means I want the raw response keys before any UI transform. Treating every empty screen as a failed request can hide the actual bug.