Yes, you did miss something.
1. Anyone can pray for the intercession of anyone who passed on. Beatification is not necessary for people to pray. However, for the prayer to be effective, a life of heroic virtue is ordinarily required on the part of the person to whom the prayer is addressed. So, for example, one can pray to Pope Borgia now, but given the evident lack of heroic virtue in Pope Borgia’s case, it would be “waste of bandwidth” to do so.
2. Heroic virtue is something a life either possessed or did not. Beatification cannot proceed unless there is objective evidence of such. An act of beatification cannot confer virtue; the saint earns these merits himself in his life time.
If God anointed the successor who are you to judge his decision? Beatify the dude.