Interesting bike.
A few differences from yours such as a different shift lever boss, and a really odd brake stud mounted to the forks.

I'm not sure why the standard is to mount the brake calipers behind the seat stay. Access? There used to be a problem on hard braking that one would pull the brake pads between the seat stays, and essentially lock the brakes. I haven't heard of that problem for quite some time, but with the direction of rotation of the tires, it would make most sense to put the brakes in front of the forks, as well as in front of the seat stays.

Also for cargo bikes, it would get them out of the way.