“Prevent discovery of usernames through ‘/?author=N’ scans” and Response Code

I have the option “Prevent discovery of usernames through ‘/?author=N’ scans” enabled, and attempts to access things like “/?author=1” are being blocked as expected.

However, these are served a 404 page and clutter up the 404 logs. Why not use something like a 403 (which is also arguably a more accurate response)?