It is a good incentive to stop people from throwing leaver matches thinking they can clear the penalty without even trying to win.
Most leavers don’t know of this change and are just shooting themselves in the foot by continuing to feed and afk, therefore never clearing their penalty.
Players don’t start at 4 penalty games. They start at 0, increasing by 1 for each recent disconnect or afk. A player with 4 penalty games is repeatedly leaving or afking.