Why is the Wiimote's range so short (IR, not gyro/BT)?

[JMa]

The gyro/blue tooth part of the Wiimote seems to have decent range, something like 75m or whatever. More than necessary. However, the infra-red thing in the Wiimote is just too damn weak, it only works if I'm something like 3-3.5m in front of the sensor bar. This is ridiculous if you have a big screen (i have a 52") because you wanna sit like 4-5m away from the TV. Why is this? My regular remotes (TV, DVD) have something like a 10m range, which is nice.

Does it help to replace the sensor bar w/ two big candles? Those of you who play on a projector, how do you deal with this?