While I hate to pull the "it's a cartoon influenced by pulp scifi" card...it's a cartoon influenced by pulp scifi.

A bit of timey wimey changes is in line with the spirit of the show. It's more like how it "retconned" Fry being in the future by accident and it being a plan of Nibbler to get him to the future to fight the brains.

And having time to see some of Fry and Leela's relationship in the moment could be nice too.