Schecter Synyster Gates set up

In this video I'm doing a set up on Ryan's Schecter Synyster Gates guitar... it had some finish damage which I've mostly fixed. I also investigated what seems to have led to that damage - and I'd conclude that the guitar was either stabbed down into a gravelly driveway (on purpose) or dropped on its bottom edge in a similar outdoor environment.
The set up itself was trouble-free (for once!) and the end result is a very nice low action over a straight neck. Niiiice.

I love Floyd Rose tremolo systems but two things have always puzzled me:
1) Why can't they invent something better to hold strings than brute force and a little metal block??
2) Why do you need that string retainer bar?