NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity touches down on the Red Planet (space.com)

What I have been struggling to understand for a few weeks is why wait so long? As the article points out, the device is at risk. Not only from cold, and from power depletion, but also its off-the-shelf electronics in a harsher-than-Earth-standard EM environment.

I gather it may have to do with power limitations but it seems like it could have been kept charged enroute...