I imagine the reason they made it the way they did is because it is much more easily tuned than a "new" system of management. This way they can add a difficulty slider that affects how much weight a character with "x" Strength can carry/push/throw late on in the development process and let players choose their personal level of cheese. It seems to me that this is a much more sensible, consistent and adaptable process than we had previously, and can be adapted to keep player agency at the forefront further down the line.
