Because I would rather not have to turn off the smoothing each time I load an image, it just tedious. If i want an image anti-aliased i will do it in my editor, same thing goes for my aliased graphics.
I would prefer it if sf::Image::myIsSmooth is false by default because as far as i can see im not going to need the APIs "smoothing" capabilties.
Thats why.
EDIT: By the way, have you noticed SFML starts slowly for about 1/2 - 1 second, try creating a simple application which starts an sf::Sprite moving in some way (rotating, scaling, translating) and pay particular attention to the start of the program and the speed at which the sprite transforms.
Most of the time, this isnt going to be problem though it still should be fixed if this is a bug.