Why is there a code sniffing requirement for @method in a docblock?

While working on a project with Cakephp 4, our team has PHP Code sniffing rules set to use the cakephp-codesniffer ruleset.

I was cleaning up some code that was generated by baking, (a Table class) and replaced the FQN in the doc blocks with a use statement to import the needed class. It bugs me seeing all of the repeated code. After I had made my changes I ran the code sniffing tool and received the following error.
ERROR | [x] Class name \Countries\Model\Entity\Country in @method should be referenced via a fully qualified name.

So my question is, Why is this a requirement when a use statement works just as well?

Because the official phpDocumentor spec defines it as such. see phpDocumentor

A valid class name seen from the context where this type is mentioned. Thus this may be either a Fully Qualified Class Name (FQCN) or if present in a namespace a local name.

Just because your IDE can understand you “short” class names with the use statement doesn’t mean that its officially the way to do.