Can someone answer a quick plumbing question? No emergency, just curiosity?

So today, the building maintenance people have shut off our water in order to repair some valves or something. We were warned well in advance, and filled the bathtub at bedtime.

The notice we received said that in order to flush the toilets, we should just pour water into the toilet bowl. Well, that didn’t work, so I poured it into the toilet tank then flushed as normal. No big deal.

What I want to know is why they’d suggest filling the bowl when it’s the gravitational force of the water in the tank that flushes away all the ickies? Should it have worked if the tank wasn’t full?