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Any take on why that is the case?

I'd say that hardware manufacturers are not accustomed to software flexibility.

They may treat changing a timeout value like changing a capacitor with one of a different value on a PCB. Doing it is slow and expensive, involving suppliers, delays, testing campaigns, etc... So that's the kind of thing that is specified up front, to avoid having to touch anything in production. If a change is needed, it will go in V2, months later at best.

It has some advantages, such as not breaking things that work, but they are also not fixing things that don't.

To add on I've seen a lot of instances where hardware people build software...like hardware people. They think in terms of relays and maybe PLCs and build their software along that model. They're sort of stuck thinking in terms of hundreds or thousands of Hertz. They don't really internalize that a little silicon bit can run at hundreds of megahertz and read sensors thousands or millions of times per second.

It's not about being dumb, I think it comes from the mental model where big electrical appliances/machines are controlled by big slow relays and switches. Changes to the state of operation involve inertia and momentum and huge power spikes and fuses that make extremely loud noises when they blow.

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