Why is the approve button (RUI ESS for timecards) not useful immediately?

Summary: There is an approve button that is seen right after a worker submits his / her timecard in ESS.

But, it does not do anything. It seems to start actually doing the worker approval AFTER the approval yellow banner appears on the timecard summary screen. See screenshots. Why is the approve button even present if it will not do anything until the worklists infrastructure generates the notification?

Content (please ensure you mask any confidential information):

This is a new time card I submitted to demonstrate the point:

It seems that Oracle should not even present that function on that screen until AFTER the yellow banner (seen below) appears. The reason: the approve button does nothing until the worklists infrastructure generates a notification...