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Why sift confectioner's sugar when making fudge?

A recipe for fudge called for sifting confectioner's sugar into the pot rather than just adding it.  The recipe also called for whisking continuously, so the sugar would be distributed immediately.

I didn't have a sifter, so I just added it slowly from the bowl into which I'd measured it.  This worked fine as far as I could tell, but I don't have a version made with sifting to compare to.

Is "use a sifter" just a way to ensure that people won't dump it all in at once, and shaking it in slowly from a bowl achieves the same effect?  Or is there some benefit to specifically *sifting* sugar that's already quite fine?