Its pretty easy to just run a cable around to the front, with a right angle jack so its flush. Don't "need" to per say, but its quite easy to do so. If you look at the Edge's latest rack, he has all four of his Axe units using the front input.
I have a Line 6 G55 in my rack, and its certainly just as easy to go into the rear, and truth be told, I heard no difference, but just run a cable around to the front for the heck of it. When I'm playing at home I just unplug that one and use a regular cable. Keeps things simple as otherwise I'd have to go in and change the input routing whenever I did that.
Again, if it was difficult to use the front input, maybe I wouldn't, but as it stands, its just as simple to patch from my wireless to the rear, as it is to patch from my wireless, under the Axe as there is a little gap between the unit and the bottom of my Gator rack, and then into the front input.