They could have, but they didn’t. Another way to look at this is they could design their own font, and they did.

Companies are allowed to make fun things.

It also seems like they are trying to put this out as a creative endeavor that gives access to a really nice set of fonts without a fee associated (they link directly to Hoefler saying this is an open license replacement)

Feel like these things happen all the time in software as creative projects? Could be a tool for attracting design talent / interest?

shrug. It’s a nice typeface, cool project.