I guess it was first introduced when there was no automatic set up. Charging the man hours to set up an account.

However, I no longer see its point in shared or reseller hosting. Perhaps dedicated, because they must set up the server yes, but not shared or reseller.

Some may do it if you pay month by month and if they have a money back guarantee, if people sign up for 30 days then move on with a refund, they atleast have the set up fee so not a total lost.