Yep, the todo is there to indicate to future code readers that yes we know this sucks but can't fix it properly yet because of blocker X, so don't try to make a half-assed fix yourself without consulting issue tracker nr ### first.

See it as an index into the issue tracker so you don't have to search the issue tracker any time you come across some really strange code. This could of course be done with normal comments also, not necessarily todo.