Using unset vs. setting a variable to empty

Mostly you don’t see a difference, unless you are using set -u:

/home/user1> var=""
/home/user1> echo $var

/home/user1> set -u
/home/user1> echo $var

/home/user1> unset var
/home/user1> echo $var
-bash: var: unbound variable

So really, it depends on how you are going to test the variable.

I will add that my preferred way of testing if it is set is:

[[ -n $var ]]  # True if the length of $var is non-zero

or

[[ -z $var ]]  # True if zero length