While looking through the Selenium source code I noticed the following in the PageFactory:

public static <T> T initElements(WebDriver driver, Class<T> pageClassToProxy) {
  T page = instantiatePage(driver, pageClassToProxy);
  initElements(driver, page);
  return page;
}

public static void initElements(WebDriver driver, Object page) {
  final WebDriver driverRef = driver;
  initElements(new DefaultElementLocatorFactory(driverRef), page);
}

What is the benefit of having the following line?

final WebDriver driverRef = driver;

Wouldn't it have made sense to just make the parameter final, and then passing that along to the next method without declaring the new reference?