IANAL, but I'm guessing it's to bring a sense of legitimacy to an otherwise batshit insane order. I feel like the Fed knows what they're doing is illegal, but phrasing it this way makes it seem sane to their base (who too are batshit insane).
Usually I see them go out due to brief power flashes and none of them have even a CMOS battery -esque setup where it can simply retain the time during a power interruption, which is likely a result of your point.
The Downloadable RAM Fairy