Yes, it's bad and confusing, but less so than not doing it, because if you place a 2-day old submission on the front page, the thread fills up with "how is this 2 days old and on the front page?"
Maybe there's a better solution but we don't know yet what it is.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21168100
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20169818
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19774614
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380
Yes, it's bad and confusing, but less so than not doing it, because if you place a 2-day old submission on the front page, the thread fills up with "how is this 2 days old and on the front page?"
Maybe there's a better solution but we don't know yet what it is.