From what I understand, ePub only requires that there BE a <title></title> in the document head… it can be empty. However, accessibility standards require an accurate descriptor of the document. I was a little surprised that ePubcheck would throw an error for an empty title?!?!
I used to just have the book title on all documents/chapters, but now I put the chapter title if it has one, or just "Chapter x" if it doesn’t. Id definitely check the accessibility standards though… I’ve made a mistake, or two, in my life.