You are asking questions about setup of a bike that only you have seen. So, sure the levers coud have been too high on the bar...or...sure, the levers could have been to low on the bar. Or perhaps they were positioned perfectly but there was something else wrong such as the 8 degree pad installed on the levers mounted on a non-ergonomic bend drop bar which the instructions you linked to state should not be done.

Who knows...Lots of things could be going on creating the problem you experienced.

The question really is what did you do or recommend to fix the issue with the primary brake lever? Or if someone else took over the repair, what did they do to ensure the bike left the CoOp in a safe condition to ride?

-j