I know how it works, and I can understand why they want it that way with the actual Satellite channels in your home.
I do not understand their thinking with the To-Go apps. There should be no blackouts whatsoever on the To-Go apps. Obviously if you are using the To-Go app you are not at home, and therefore you cannot watch your local station to see the game. So your local channel isn't going to get to count you as a viewer no matter what. It's not going to hurt their numbers at all if you can catch the game away from your house on your phone/tablet. I'm fairly certain nobody in Chicago is going to sit at home and watch the Bears game on their iPad so they can see the Detroit Fox stations coverage instead of the local Chicago Fox station on their big screen TV.
Football is a destination tv event, in that people arrange schedule to watch it. Picture this, your home team is on the TV and you want to watch. Wife begs you to go the mall and wait while she tries on dresses. If you have local games on your ipad, you think "sure why not, I won't miss the game at all and I'll score some huge wife-points". If you don't, you tell her to pound sand you are staying home, watching the game. Besides, thats why they invented mirrors, and you weren't going to tell her that her a@@ looked big in that dress even if it does.
I'm sure its not a big number, but for football, I bet having it mobile does effect the numbers a little. Ditch To-Go and get a slingbox or like device and you won't have to worry about the local black-out problem.