AIR ADT duplicates icons within package

I have a detailed question on SO, but hoping to get more exposure to experts here.

In short, in regards to application icons in descriptor-app.xml, the documentation states:

"The path specified is relative to the application root directory.

Note: The icons specified are not automatically added to the AIR package. The icon files must be included in their correct relative locations when the application is packaged."

If my descriptor file has icons like this:

<icon>
   <image16x16>icons/smallIcon.png</image16x16>
   <image32x32>icons/mediumIcon.png</image32x32>
   <image48x48>icons/bigIcon.png</image48x48>
   <image128x128>icons/biggestIcon.png</image128x128> 
</icon>

I would include them with ADT command like this:

adt [STUFF] outputfile.apk descriptor-app.xml main.swf icons

Which will produce APK structure like this:

package.apk

  |---> assets (this is the application root on Android package)

  |      |---> icons

  |      |      |---> smallIcon.png

  |      |      |---> mediumIcon.png

  |      |      |---> bigIcon.png

  |      |      |---> biggestIcon.png

  |      |---> main.swf

  |---> res

         |---> drawable-hdpi

         |      |---> icon.png

         |---> drawable-ldpi

         |      |---> icon.png

         |---> drawable-mdpi

         |      |---> icon.png

         |---> drawable-xhdpi

                |---> icon.png

The icons in folder under res/drawable*are duplicates of icons under assets/icons

The documentation is asking me to do the impossible, as ADT does not allow to specify files to add to package that are outside "application root", and icons location for Android is outside of application root.

Why? I don't have to include descriptor.xml in application root: ADT knows where to place it in package. Why do I have to polute my application root with dupicate copy of "icons"?