I agree that it’s security theater and a suspect implementation, but I was playing a game of “let’s imagine why someone might do this...”—

I’m wondering, suppose it was designed this way because part of the goal is to prevent the spread of malware, the fastest means of which is an internet connected computer. In that event, the feature only intrudes when the computer, by virtue of it’s internet connection, is a member of the threat class.

So... plausible?