It makes sense to me.
I wouldn't be surprised if City, the Premier League and the panel all agreed some time ago that, whatever the verdict was, it would cause too much aggravation to release the information in the closing few weeks of the season and have clubs and fans in uproar should a punishment be handed down, but appealed and then delayed.
Nobody wants a sentence (or non-sentence) dragging on from one season to another without resolution. This way, we can have a verdict and an appeal all sorted within the same season.
Neither City nor the PL need the distraction at this time of the campaign, no matter how impatient us fans are to get this over with.
Also, if the verdict is delivered a couple of months before the start of the season, it allows time for the anger to die down. Throw a verdict out on a Friday in April and all hell will break loose with any game the following day being a powderkeg of emotion, one way or the other.