Yes that would be a better sequence, but they may of been worried about the item being deleted and then something goes wrong like a disconnet. The person is then out of the item and does not have the code bits for that item. The way it is currently will leave you with both and therefore lessen the complaints.
I didn't think that this would be so much of a hassle seeing how it's only one inventory space and you can pick up the lost code bit directly after.