Yeah, that scene had me confused too.
Then I noticed that such things (like the door that didn't open - or back when the robot rat in the prison cell block didn't have a purpose) never really came up again as the game progressed.
So, finally, I came to think that those were just "artifacts" of the development process having to do with the team working out ideas as they went along and then discarding them but leaving them in just for fun.
Bottom line: I think there's a LOT in this game that's meant "Just For fun".
