Usefulness of def __init__(self)?

Yeah, check this out:

class A(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self.lst = []

class B(object):
    lst = []

and now try:

>>> x = B()
>>> y = B()
>>> x.lst.append(1)
>>> y.lst.append(2)
>>> x.lst
[1, 2]
>>> x.lst is y.lst
True

and this:

>>> x = A()
>>> y = A()
>>> x.lst.append(1)
>>> y.lst.append(2)
>>> x.lst
[1]
>>> x.lst is y.lst
False

Does this mean that x in class B is established before instantiation?

Yes, it’s a class attribute (it is shared between instances). While in class A it’s an instance attribute. It just happens that strings are immutable, thus there is no real difference in your scenario (except that class B uses less memory, because it defines only one string for all instances). But there is a huge one in my example.