Editing Attribute Values of Variant Items not allowed?

Today in OOTB, it looks like editing Attribute Values of Variant Items is not allowed. It’s even explicitly set in item.js where it mentions below in line 752.

// value column is displayed but not editable
grid.set_column_disp("attribute_value", true);
grid.toggle_enable("attribute_value", false); 

Any reason why this is the case? Does anyone know how to make it editable safely?