Ironman. You might be correct in your thinking, but then, why cut the bar shorter and then add the length back on with the welded bars. In the parts look up the flat welded bars definitely extend beyond the original fork bar. The most logical modification to increase the service area would have been to simply weld the two perpendicular ones on flush to the end of the original fork. Not necessarily extending it.
I am extremely logical about things. Sometimes engineers don't always see the forest for the tree. But even I cannot think that engineers and/or production managers would say "OK boys, cut off 1" on all 50,000 carriage forks in stock and then weld two of these 2" extension bars to all of them".
I've seen a fork or two that the bottom side was worn out to the point of totally gone. Far worse than your picture. I wonder if a worn fork like yours has much of an effect on the front to back leveling of a deck.
Thanks for the input. As I mentioned, you may be correct, but it doesn't sound logical.
Mike