We are heading into "show" season, SHOT show etc. This is where buyers from sporting goods retailers place orders for the coming year. Are buyers going to get excited by a new flavor of 280AI ammo to? Or are they going to push the go button on a new rifle/ammo/loading dies etc? Federal (or any manufacturer) isn't trying to sell to their customers, the retailers. The retailer would way rather sell a new gun, a scope, and ammo.
So they are not creating a hurdle at all. How does it increase Federal's and the retailers bottom line if existing gun owners buy a box of the new ammo? They were going to buy ammo anyway, so it would be trading one for the other. There would be zero increase in sales.