What is the benefit in making it so hard to get a GED as a teenager?

I'm 21 now, but I dropped out of school in the 7th grade. It was impossible for me to get my GED until I was 19, and then going to college was delayed because of that. They needed a lot of additional documentation, nearly all of it was impossible for me to get because of my circumstances. I could've taken the test at 16, gotten my drivers license around that time too and been on with life much earlier if those systems weren't in place.

What is the benefit of this? It's just putting young people in a worse situation, I see no actual benefit, monetary or otherwise.