Nice… I thought I understood you, until I got lost on this:
[Then you create an empty page (just having a title or at most an introductory message) and assign it the template “archives”.]
I created an empty page, but no obvious way how to assign it the template “archives”??
[All you need to do then is drop a link to the archives into the sidebar or wherever your nav is.]
If I created an empty page, and saved it, didn’t it create the link to this empty page… which I titled archives?
HUH?! HAHA… I’m just all out confused. HAHA..