I'm thinking its because Republic didn't expect to see any of that money, seeing they were unrealized revenue from future operations as opposed to actual losses some of the creditors experienced.

So they decided to try and make some money off the situation, to take their lemons and make lemonade, so to speak. It might be a good decision, numerous airlines have made a whole bunch of money in these kinds of deals in the past, AWAC and USAirways comes to mind.