Location, location, location.
Earth is too hot for a telescope that needs such low temperatures to operate. They are building a 5 layered sunshield to protect the JWST from the heat of the Sun. By 'hovering' in L1Sun-Earth L2, a million miles from Earth, they can avoid someessentially all of the radiated heat from Earth.
The goal is to keep it as cold as possible passively to minimize the active cooling needed, to allow it to work longer.