Yes that's true that the home page shows the latest answers . But it also have latest questions . So some forums which targets to students they may be more dependent on latest answered questions .
It is just an idea though it is little bit specific target .
As already we have the feature implemented in the core , I wonder why the link is skipped . It may be intentional too as we have the answered questions on the home page .
Lets see what others think about this .