Why? Well, quite simply because they've given us SIX WHOLE WEEKS to do this whole robot thing. I mean, six weeks to design, build, program, debug, and practice operating a robot is like an eternity. Why not throw in there the development of an advanced IDE, just to give yourself a challenge, however slight.
(On a serious note, though, it seems the time to have done this--if there ever was a time--would have been *before* kickoff.)
And out of curiousity, what "features" are you referring to?