On several occasions, I had that kind of discussion with some publishers and graphic designers while co-working at the 'conception' of the books for which I 'committed' the photography.
I sometimes had to 'fight' for inserting a white page in between the sequence, as to have resting point, just like a comma or a semicolon in a text.
I wanted to slow down, or insert a hold in, the flow of images in a book. It's not always good to overflow the reader/viewer with a rushing river of images.
Images are, like text, a line of messages, communication, storytelling; and sometimes a 'blanc' can accentuate the contents.
A blanc can also support a switch in that content, a passage from one one phrase to an other, photography is a (written-) language too....
It was rather exceptional to find a graphic designer who could understand that, and even more a publisher who wanted to 'waste' on white pages.
I always saw a (photo-)book as "un long fleuve tranquille", which gently drew the reader in to the message, by taking him/her by the hand and leading through the woods of images...
But every time I could push through my vision on 'directing the flow of images', at the end, they had to admit is was "not bad" to control the current...
I felt the same 'opposition' when I wanted to present a small image on a large (white-)page, this works as accentuation, like inserting a word written capitals in the middle of a sentence, or underlining it.
White, in the sense of emptiness, in a book, is as important, or even more, as a full page, by far!
BTW, in my eyes, a full page feels like a slam in the face, which I profoundly dislike, but ofcourse this is a very personal vision...