No __init__.py, but still considered a package? - package

Question

A foobar package
foobar
__init__.py
foo.py
bar
bar.py
Inside the __init__.py
from . import foo
from . import bar
Even though bar is not a package or a sub-package, it is still imported as a module (lolwut). I checked the import type by doing print(type(bar)) inside the __init__.py and it printed <class 'module'>... that's it. What's going on here? It is a module object, so I did print(dir(bar)) and the output was ['__doc__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__path__', '__spec__']. Now, what's even more confusing to me is the __path__ variable in this. Isn't that a package-only thing?
Is this what's known as a namespace-package? I am thinking that it isn't, nevertheless I tried one more thing inside that __init__.py file - added a line import bar.bar. It ended in an ImportError. So, to sum up my question, what is this module useful for? Why did Python import this in the first place?
There's an amazing tutorial on this entire topic by David Beazley. I have watched the whole thing a while ago, but I guess I should watch it again to recollect everything.

Answer 1

From the docs
A module is a file containing Python definitions and statements. The file name is the module name with the suffix .py appended. Within a module, the module’s name (as a string) is available as the value of the global variable __name__.
...
Packages are a way of structuring Python’s module namespace by using “dotted module names”. For example, the module name A.B designates a submodule named B in a package named A.
...
Packages support one more special attribute, __path__. This is initialized to be a list containing the name of the directory holding the package’s __init__.py before the code in that file is executed. This variable can be modified; doing so affects future searches for modules and subpackages contained in the package.
While this feature is not often needed, it can be used to extend the set of modules found in a package.
So yes, the __path__ variable is applied to the modules inside a package as well and those modules are treated as 'submodules of a package'
Edit
In Python 2.x, that package with the from . import bar would return an ImportError at that line. On Python 3.x the modulefoobar.foo has a type of <module 'foobar.foo' from '../py/foobar/foo.py'> and the foobar.bar of <module 'foobar.bar' (namespace)>.
Apparently, it appeared here
Regular packages will continue to have an init.py and will reside in a single directory. Namespace packages cannot contain an init.py