Now, that is one thing that wouldn't necessarily bother me on a low countries bike from that era.

BITD, when MAFAC calipers were widely considered to be the best available (except by the Italians, of course), many racers would combine them with Universal levers (except the French of course), as the MAFAC levers need fairly big hands and the half hoods need to be taped securely to the levers of you want them to stay put.