Why can't A24 & Neon release their movies directly in Canada? Why the middleman?

As someone who follows the film landscape in Canada closely, I've always been kind of vexed by A24 and Neon's decision to write off the Canadian market altogether and just have their movies be released by Canadian distributors Elevation Pictures, Mongrel Media and VVS Films. I believe there are less than 600 movie theatres in Canada. Is the prospect of releasing movies in Canada that much of an insurmountable task that they don't see it as worthwhile? It's almost insulting that they're basically saying, "the hell with Canada, we don't even need them". How hard is it to release a movie in Canada? The major studios have been doing it in Canada since the dawn of cinema.