Matt R wrote
Perhaps, but for stubs, providing "References", "External links" or "Further reading" brings a practical benefit that doesn't apply quite the same way for more mature articles: namely, recording the location of useful material can be very helpful to subsequent editors looking to expand the article.
Providing an _optional_ template might not do a lot of harm; but given the way stubs operate, thought should be given as to which 'fields' are really compulsory. I've been seeing quite a number of Indian/Chinese music and dance articles recently - do we really expect references and web sites for these? From the point of view of increasing Wiki-en's reach, we do need the stub that simply points out a gap. WP is founded on stubs, after all.
There is a tension: the more complete WP is on things about which being fairly complete is not so hard, the more difficult it is to make articles in the less-favoured areas match up. I don't want to see this develop into a your-reach-is-greater-than-your-grasp faultline.
Charles