The entire book of Devarim is one long event, Moshe’s farewell speech to the Jews. It begins with Moshe listing the locations they travelled through, which Rashi points out are thinly veiled hints to the sins and tragedies that took place at each of them.
But if Moshe’s goal was to rebuke, the way to that is to gently reference the event, and not the location – the locations played no role in what took place!
The way for a person to know they have done Teshuva – repented properly, as delineated by the Rambam, is that the same people, in the same situation, in the same place, do not make the same mistake. With the initial misaction/sin, something was damaged, and through repentance, it gets rectified.
Moshe referenced these locations because what occurred at each of them had altered the fabric of the environment, damaging it. They had made big mistakes and not rectified them.
They were on the cusp of entering Israel – he pleaded with them not to make the same mistakes that they had. He was telling them that the environment in Israel is sensitive to the actions of its residents – that they ought to be careful and not literally destroy the land as they had in the desert.