Jinja2 basically uses mostly-like-Python comparisons, so it's a lot simpler. And this is what the "when" in Ansible uses to evaluate statements.
We try to not overwhelm folks with all of the Jinja2, in fact, overuse of Jinja2 in Ansible playbooks is something of a problem in user-land.
Rather, the documentation shows some of the basic examples and points towards the Jinja2 documentation for those that wish to learn more.
I want to keep that from being too overwhelming, or also encouraging a new user to use "all" of the Jinja2 too soon, which would lead to some ungainly playbooks.
Anyway, that's kind of why it is the way it is.
With great templating power comes great responsibility, etc :)