Originally posted by john.smuda.3 why have any delay on a tripod at all?
It is a silly idea going back at least 60 years where it was assumed that tripods might not be particularly stable and might actually harbor resonance traceable to SLR mirror slap as well as shutter press. Some makers* offered mirror-up on shutter press with the self timer,** hence a similar silly feature on today's cameras.
Steve
* My Ricoh Singlex TLS, Ricoh XR-2s, Exakta VX IIa, and Exakta VX 1000 are all that way.
** The idea being that the timer would allow vibrations to dissipate prior to opening the shutter.