For those competing both Junior and Senior in the season (for instance, Zich), yes.Lombardia trophy is a week after so maybe it's a factor?
For the younger guys (Linz is scheduled before school year start in Italy), it shouldn't be a factor.
It depends on how many men they are planning to enter in JGPs. If it is just Zich, Nalbone and Barison, later JGPs are more than enough to given them 2 assignments each. If they want to give the opportunity to somebody else too (Dossena?), Linz could have been a good opportunity.
The issue is that If they had given up the spots last month (just like they did with the 2 spots in Osaka and 1 each in Bangkok, Yerevan, Istanbul), they would have been redistributed to US and Canada. By confirming them but then not entering anyone, they go wasted.