I think it's about CO2 toxicity as Jeremiah the chemist suggested. And IIRC most people made starters.
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Just curious... how much more CO2 would be in the airlocked carboy? As pointed out below, the difference in pressure is ~0.03 psi. CO2 is heavier than air, so it's just sitting there under the foil, albeit slowly diffusing out from under the foil as enough is produced by fermentation to displace it. The airlocked carboy likely always has a little bit more CO2 on top (well, 0.03 psi worth). Does that really cause dissolved CO2 to be high enough in the airlocked carboy that the yeast suffer? If so, damn they are sensitive.
I'd agree with Charles1968 below that O2 makes more sense, assuming enough O2 passively diffuses in and passively dissolves in the fermenting beer to make a difference. Again, conjecture.
Just what makes sense to me (without data to back it up) as a former yeast biologist. Who knows, I could be wrong. Maybe that tiny amount of extra CO2 really does matter. Or a combination of a little less CO2 and a little more O2?