SMTD uses almost ALL settings of the Renderer (all renderers including Scanline, mental ray, VRay, Brazil, finalRender, Krakatoa etc.), so going to the Render Setup dialog to set up those is pretty much required. The time settings are part of the same dialog’s Common tab, as are a dozen others that are also taken into account and sent to Deadline like Output Size, all Options checkboxes and the Render Output Save File checkbox and Filename path. Once we duplicate one, you will ask us to move them all, right? 
Just kidding.
But we don’t want to duplicate ANY settings that are already in Max. (We duplicated the Region Render settings because we don’t consider them exposed correctly in Max anyway). But in general, you are supposed to use SMTD side-by-side with the Render Setup dialog to send to Deadline.
SMTD is overcrowded as it is, so I don’t think it will happen any time soon…
I understand you are just starting to use it, but we have been using it since 2004 and it has been working pretty well the way it is. Of course this gives you the benefit of a fresh perspective, so we can discuss these things, but the Time controls will stay where they are for now 