Careful planting is very important for early fruit and good fruit production. You cannot make early strawberries from plants with damaged root systems, and damaged roots can allow plant disease problems to overtake the plant while the plant repairs and forms new roots. Moisture is very important to the new plant. If the roots of the new plant ever dry too much, the roots will be quickly damaged, and will never function to grow the plant. This is very, very important for early plantings.
New leaves require the plant to absorb increasing amounts of moisture.
To keep the plant alive, the roots must be in good condition and must be in contact with good moisture. The more roots that are placed in good moisture, the better chance the plant has to survive the difficult time before the roots catch up with leaf growth. If the roots are cut off short, there will be less early root system to absorb water, and it may not be possible to maintain bed moisture above the level of the shortened roots. If there is air around the roots, there is much chance of damaging the roots exposed to air, and no chance for the exposed roots to help support the plant. It the roots are bent near the top of the bed, it may be easy for the bed to dry below the root level, killing or damaging the plant.