If I remember correctly, the doubling of aoe hold recharge cool-downs came in a batch of controller re-balancing. Controllers complained they had few effective means of dealing damage when solo, and the 'city of statues' issue was taking fun out of the general experience.
Devs created the containment inherent to give all controllers a boost in damage and doubled the recharge of all aoe hold powers as their solutions. The aoe change didn't go over well as they were also mucking around with Enhancement Diversification at the time, and ED made the recharge doubling all the worse to swallow. The damage bone they threw us placated many, but I never liked the doubling. The one thing you want to do when playing is USE your powers, not wait around for them (halving the duration would have been preferable to doubling the cool-down).
As time has gone on, that old solution of double recharge time has not aged well in light of the evolved status of the game (dominators, blaster nukes, IOs, incarnates, etc), so maybe it's time to revisit this issue.