Det är väl helt enkelt för att programminnet är organiserat "word-wise", alltså 16 bitar.
Från databladet:
Since all AVR instructions are 16 or 32 bits wide, the Flash is organized as 1024/2048/4096 x 16.
Constant tables can be allocated within the entire Program memory address space (see the
LPM – Load Program memory instruction description).
Läs även sid 17 här:
http://www.avr-asm-download.de/beginner_en.pdf
As the program memory is organized word-wise (one instruction on one
address consists of 16 bits or two bytes or one word) the least significant bit selects the lower or upper byte
(0=lower byte, 1= upper byte). Because of this the original address must be multiplied by 2 and access is
limited to 15-bit or 32 kB program memory.
Like this:
LDI ZH,HIGH(2*address)
LDI ZL,LOW(2*address)
LPM