What symlinks leading into itself are good for?

Hi, I found that there are some symlinks which are leading into itself in live 4MLinux filesystem /:
folder /usr/local/ is symlink leads into itself /usr/local/
folder /usr/samba/ is symlink leads into itself /usr/samba/

'Cos when I go into it - it goes into /usr/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/local/ ... and so on ... dependency rate on as far as many clicks ...

Just curious about it - what is it good for if it leads to (seems to me) 'nowhere'.
(both folders are empty at this time).

Q1:
Why they are just not simply 'straight' folder instead of symlink?

Q2:
Speaks about symlinks - can someone tell me please, what is good for in '/usr' folder to create additional symlinks,
but which leads back to basic '/' linux folders:
/etc
/var

Does some software or access rights need it?
(but 4MLinux uses root acct anyway so no access troubles I guess right?)

'Cos (seems to me as laik) the whole linux is based on directory structure rootpaths /etc & /var - so why additional symlinks inside /usr of the same please? Isn't the path '/etc' shorter than path '/usr/etc'?

Thank you guys for info or links to help me understand it.