Remember we’re talking about a game here, and the actual implementation in that game. If you say you don’t have the traffic, it just asks you the same question again a few seconds later.
Is that correct to real procedure?
(Anyway, I apologize as I don’t think I’m being very clear; suffice to say I am suspicious that the current ATC implementation should be treating a lot of these cases differently but it’s a much lower priority issue than things like bad descent instructions that send you into mountains. :D)