Not entirely accurate. If you know the whole lifecycle this strange process can make a hell of a lot more sense.
In the right environment, agave also reproduce vegetatively. They put out offshoots, some of which will produce their own roots.
Once you are closed in on all sides by clone siblings, your next best bet is to try to spread to a new spot. Reproducing sexually gives you a chance to expand to the next few habitable areas.
Then you die, leaving an open space in the middle of all your clones. They fill in and one of them has an opportunity to repeat the process in a few years.
My read on this is that desert, rocky terrain, and epiphytic plants find small microbiomes where they can survive. Once they have exploited those resources, once they've 'walked' looking for other spots very close by, they can't just move a couple feet away. They have to fly, and fly far, or die trying.
In the right environment, agave also reproduce vegetatively. They put out offshoots, some of which will produce their own roots.
Once you are closed in on all sides by clone siblings, your next best bet is to try to spread to a new spot. Reproducing sexually gives you a chance to expand to the next few habitable areas.
Then you die, leaving an open space in the middle of all your clones. They fill in and one of them has an opportunity to repeat the process in a few years.