In order for a resistor to drop the voltage by half, it would dissipate as much power as the smoke resistor. Do you really want another hot component in there melting the shell?
The diode operates in a totally different way to dissipate the AC power, it simply blocks one polarity of the alternating current and thus supplies about half the power to the smoke resistor. It does this while dissipating very little power, it simply doesn't allow the half cycle of current to pass.