Why would they believe that someone in the future would be tracking their mailing list post history and correlating email timestamps with real-life activity? There's no motivation to take steps to hide one's tracks (by setting up a remote email send while one is were away) unless one thinks that is going to happen.
Satoshi took many steps to conceal his identity and very much values anonymity. Why is this step one too far?
As the article says, Back was very interested in methods of covering one's tracks.