The Logitech controller they used uses a proprietary wireless dongle, not BT. No pairing is involved.
It's not safety critical like the ability to drop ballast is. If something goes wrong with it you just kill propulsive power, resurface, and replace it. Also more engineering effort will have gone into making the controller reliable by its manufacturer than most would want to be able to justify spending creating something custom.
I wouldn’t expect it to be more reliable - or less likely to cause harmful interference — than using Bluetooth.