re: Serious shortfall
"The Nanosats were released at the proper time, demonstrating a new low-shock separation system, which will be used in future systems. In addition, the Nanosats were successfully integrated onto the DemoSat in a remarkably short four-month period, thus providing a successful demonstration of a responsive space mission," the Air Force statement said.
The bold I highlighted is probably an additional reason for the timed release, otherwise like you say, not a desirable method.