Exactly. Once upon a time the powers that were figured a live node list would be cool, so they did that. Many moons later, the new powers that were decided that while a live node list looks cool, it contains too much magic pixie dust which may cause allergies in a lot of people (symptoms include frantically screaming at your screen about why this stuff doesn't work like you expect it to work). But they couldn't just change existing stuff or risk breaking the web. But they could avoid it for new stuff, and so they did that.