I suppose it might be useful to see the initial exit time when you first arm the system so you have an idea how much time you'll have to exit, but beyond that I don't think many people will want to look at the display as it counts down. The decision we made was to speed up the beeping when you have less than 10 seconds left. That way you don't need to look at the display, but can still know if you'll have time to exit.