The backup file (the .bak) contains only the pages (actually extents) that are allocated to objects. There's no point in backing up empty space.

The restored database must however be exactly the same as the database that was backed up. If the source database had 50% free space, so will the restored DB. How would SQL tell cases where that 50% free space is desired and required from cases where is is not? It can't just assume that the free space can be removed (and, infact doing so could be a huge problem, it would essentially be doing a shrink after every restore, horrible)