In the grand scheme of things it's not a biggy, but it's an obvious thing that could be fixed and is one less link in a potential chain of events
Funny how those little things become big things. I saw it happen one time. It think it was Khaki-Blue (another U.S-deregulation-gone-bust-airline) the controller thought was a Kittyhawk. The controller tried to turn him 3 times -- calling him Kittyhawk -- before he was forced to go to the other aiplane and try to move him. He waited too long (actually he started too late.) They missed, but it was ugly.
Don Brown