I guess that All the creators over the Past decades just did not see this as an error, by changing or altering a texture also changed the name of it . I also do it this way ever since, not sure if it cold  be a use full update if the viewport also would change a updated texture keeping the same texture name. Hope such a change would not affect the load as the engine might have to refresh the whole load of texture constantly this sure could be a heavy load ( Technically ) if just for the option " When If " a texture would be altered keeping the same name as shortcut to reload a new one. 

Sometimes it might be that there is a reason why this does not happen. A constant texture reload could sure affect allot of things and bring some unwanted surprises along especially if the texture has a slight path issue :)  this might remove the option " File Search " or give you constant errors on the viewport