Steemit hopes that you may forget to claim your rewards ... just kidding. :)
I guess that the number of (reward) transactions decreases, if you pool several of them by pressing the "REDEEM REWARDS" button. Before every single reward meant a single transaction as well. Now system resources are saved.
I was always under the impression that Steemit is extremely well designed for future growth and that scaling isn't really an issue these days. Maybe it is indeed a measure for the future already.
Or maybe "it" really wants us to forget. ;-)