Why the deadlines?

I know we have to have deadlines for submitting proposals. It's part of this need to have an organized society. But common people, at least humor me and make it look like it's more than just an arbitrarily chosen date to make my life miserable. I submitted a grant proposal electronically in mid-December. The proposal announcement came out only 5 weeks before the due date and I scrambled to get it done along with all of the other end-of-the-year stuff that was going on.  I received the confirmation from Grants.gov that it went through fine, but then I never received the email that the sponsoring agency/foundation downloaded the application. I know the people at these places are working working their arses off, just like the rest of us, but please at least download my freakin' proposal so that it looks like there was a reason for the deadline. If you weren't going to look at it before the break, why not just move it to January? Instead of posting here I could have been working on the proposal. (Yes, I know I have two proposals due in January that I should be working on at the moment, but that's not the point right now.)