Why should we change variable for this optimization problem?

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I am doing the additional exercises of the book Convex Optimization, and I am stuck at question 3.32 (page 29 of this pdf).

The problem is:

$$ \begin{aligned} & \text{minimize} && f_0(x)\\ & \text{subject to} && \sum_i^m(1 + \lambda f_i(x))_+ \le m - k\\ &&& \lambda > 0 \end{aligned} $$

where $(\cdot )_+$ represents $\max\{\cdot,\ 0\}$, and $f_0, f_i$ are convex functions.

The author gives a hint that, to solve this problem using convex optimization, we may use the change of variables.

My question is, as far as I know, this problem is already a convex optimization problem, because the expression

$$ \sum_i^m(1 + \lambda f_i(x))_+ - m + k $$

is convex for both $\lambda$ and $x$. Then what's the point of changing variables here?