I came across someone linking to this thread just a few weeks ago, so I thought it should be updated a bit.
As of version 1.2.124, Editor 2 now has a nice interface for creating new projects. It does still require an internet connection to download the template files (even for the empty project template), but you do not have to log in to your account and the project is not connected to any online services.
And to further add to this you can create a bare bones project by creating an empty game.project file in an empty folder and the select Open From Disk in Editor 2 and select the empty game.project file.
Would be nice if the internet connection requirement wasn’t there though 
You still need to be online to make a new project
An empty project is really tiny, so you are not adding much of a footprint to the editor’s size by distributing it with a template empty project
Yes, we should bundle at least the basic templates with the editor.