When we create custom profile without sepc.profile.name and recommend.profile , NTO will prevent to create the profile, but if the value set to empty, the profile file will become unknow state. 

create profile like as below:
cat all-nodes-tuned.yaml 
apiVersion: tuned.openshift.io/v1
kind: Tuned
metadata:
 name: tuning-all-nodes
 namespace: openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
spec:
 profile:
 - data: |
     [main]
     summary=Custom OpenShift ntotuning profile
     include=openshift-control-plane,openshift-node
     [sysctl]
     vm.max_map_count=2543750
   name: ""
 
 recommend:
   - priority: 20
     profile: ""
     #profile: tuning-all-nodes 

The profile can be created even if the value of sepc.profile.name and recommend.profile is empty, it cause the pod crashed and profile state to unknown.
oc get pods -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator 
NAME                                            READY   STATUS      RESTARTS      AGE
cluster-node-tuning-operator-575d67577c-c725n   1/1     Running     0             36m
tuned-26wjs                                     0/1     Completed   2 (15s ago)   29m
tuned-788h2                                     0/1     Completed   2 (15s ago)   29m
tuned-hqzgw                                     0/1     Completed   2 (15s ago)   32m
tuned-l62rq                                     0/1     Completed   1 (16s ago)   29m
tuned-m2mcq                                     0/1     Completed   2 (15s ago)   32m
tuned-pg25v                                     0/1     Completed   2 (14s ago)   32m
oc get profile -n openshift-cluster-node-tuning-operator
NAME                                         TUNED   APPLIED   DEGRADED   AGE
ip-10-0-129-130.us-east-2.compute.internal           Unknown   Unknown    38m
ip-10-0-155-12.us-east-2.compute.internal            Unknown   Unknown    40m
ip-10-0-170-104.us-east-2.compute.internal           Unknown   Unknown    38m
ip-10-0-182-79.us-east-2.compute.internal            Unknown   Unknown    40m
ip-10-0-193-250.us-east-2.compute.internal           Unknown   Unknown    38m
ip-10-0-200-4.us-east-2.compute.internal             Unknown   Unknown    40m

prevent empty value when apply the custom profile