If having a root account somehow forces people to log in as root on a regular basis, then these people are fucktards and shouldn't be allowed to leave their padded cells.
Ugh, that's usability 101 that users are fucktards and shouldn't be allowed to leave their padded cells
It doesn't force them to login as root but some would do it, even though there's basically no reason to start a graphical session as root (certainly, some people would start graphical sessions as root more than necessary, like everytime they get a permission denied error). For non-graphical sessions there's 'sudo -s'.
What's wrong with sudo?
It's probably easier for noobs to grasp that for administrative tasks, you have to reenter your password, rather than having to enter an admin password (why isn't the user already admin?), and that's probably why they went with it.
Plus, it's as easy as 'sudo passwd' to set up a root password for those who for whatever reason want it..