Indies 0 is one of those tiny little things that annoy - not so much that I think that no one has ever used the setting except possibly for SP testing, but because it's one of the settings that wraps around, while others don't.
Seems like if you're increasing the strength of independents, it's
extremely unlikely that you want it set to 0.
Note though - I've definately seen provinces empty of troops on a setting of at least 3, possibly 5 or 6. We had a PBEM game going, the 2nd turn I see provinces
supposedly empty of troops. I oh so very hesitantly moved 2 separate armies out, orders to retreat - and took both provinces. Yet the setting wasn't 0, and after those 2 the neighbors all had the usual 30-60 troops. (Happily we did a restart, as it turned out to be a very bad choice of maps.)