I meant the distance from the brakes to the rest of me. The position of the brakes on the straight bar is on the bar, as on a MTB. FWIW, I made the change, but didn't cut the bar - I just mounted the stem from my son's old bike, which had a positive angle (points up instead of down), used the brake levers from that same old bike, and used the bar and bar ends from an old Specialized HardRock that I had swapped out for trekking bars on the HardRock.
Overall, I'm a little higher up and a lot less stretched out when I'm riding on the bar with my hands on the brake levers. The bar ends are to give me a way to stretch out more when I want to, and a different hand position.
I don't remember if I said, but the reason I need a less aggressive position is because of arthritis and stenosis in my neck, which make it very painful to ride for long in an aggressive posture. This bike doesn't need to be aero - it's my beater for riding around within 5-10 miles or so of home, mostly in a pretty densely populated older suburban area. (Think grid and city street layout, not big wide roads and strip malls.)