Bad? Our Friend Texted This To His Soon-To-Be Father in Law

We have a distant friend who is getting engaged (hopefully) to his girlfriend on Thanksgiving.

He TEXTED her dad to ask if he can propose.

He claims he could never find a time where they were both available so, he eventually just texted the dad and asked to marry his daughter.

Dad said yes.

Mom texted our friend and said he should really come over and ask again in person.

When we were told this was happening, some of us said 'well, it's 2019, at least you asked in general' and the other half was thinking 'you're an idiot you should have bucked up and gone to his house'.

Is this an old tradition that you don't really need to do anymore?