A TiVo box already has lots of options for browsing through a database of shows/series/actors, so it makes a lot more sense to link Netflix into that.
But note that this is only on TiVos, so many (most?) of the consumers will already be used to the idea of HDD recording and series links. Once I got a TiVo it wasn't long before I got into the habit of hitting "My Shows" rather than channel hopping.
Note that these kind of "app channels" are pretty common with cable systems now, so while I guess it might be odd to people who either never had cable or were early cord-cutters, its not at all odd to describe this as getting their own cable channel.