Author guidelines for journal submissions still seem to be based in the era when you typed a manuscript and posted it to the editorial office. I’ve just had a question about my achemso package and the guidelines for Analytical Chemistry. They want Figure and Table captions in a list on their own, and they still want graphics on separate pages from the text. Reviewing papers where people stick to these rules is harder than when the rules are ignored, and the content is in-line.
Most of the journals now want electronic submissions only, but haven’t altered their own guidelines to reflect the very different workflow this produces. It is a two-way street, and I at least tend to ‘vote with my feet’ and submit things that are easier for the reviewer to read, whatever the publishers say.