One of the other threads says lower number of crosses helps the thrust angle on the drive side of a dished wheel (same lateral distance but shorter spokes). That's my guess for them going radial on DS as shown in your earlier pic. And modern hubs with large cylindrical bodies make it easy to transmit the torque to the non-drive-side crossed spokes.

However, there was some hub for radial, not shimano, that had that same sort of slots for non-elbowed spokes, that had a recall, evidently the slots didn't hold over time.