Yes, for 2 reasons.  

First, 'configLocations' may intentionally be empty, or null if called from a subclass directly rather than indirectly through init.  Even init asserts (line 192) only one of 'contextConfigLocations' or the 'basePackages' parameter must be specified, so 'configLocations' maybe empty when createApplicationContext is called, even from init, and is thus the deciding factor for which type of ApplicationContext to create.

Second, and maybe more importantly, is that both createApplicationContext methods are part of the SpringContextBootstrappingInitializer's interface (also, intentional), allowed to be overridden by subclasses, or called directly.

I only just added this on Friday.