Well yes there is.There is an online portal for this type of application. The only difference, however, is the shipping method. Apparently, there is no real gain in application processing speed compared to sending physical documents by mail/courier.
It helps IRCC move just a little bit faster as an administrative officer doesn't need to scan/upload documents, and it prevents them from being dumb-dumb and losing documents when they ship it across to different offices.
It also helps applicants not be dumb-dumb and accidentally forget to include important things like a payment receipt, which if missing, means game over and your application comes back incomplete. 18 months later.
Paper for PNP will be phased out by September this year anyway.
Save yourself time and money - upload it online.