This is necessary for payment plans for tours (ie. bus payments over the course of 8 weeks).
In DF you would be able to enter all your tour invoices for the whole tour in advance. You would enter the invoice date as the earliest date DF would allow you to cut the payment. Then each week you could quickly pay all invoices, and DF would only cut payments prior to the check date. This would prevent you from accidentally paying a vendor too early.
Another example is if i want to enter both Los Angeles property tax payments in advance, i would not have to worry about 2nd payment until next year, when it would automatically be included in my check run closer to due date.