Or could it simply be a bit of legacy code from an abandoned feature? (snackbar-games.com)
I've seen a lot of legacy codes in engineering that are virtually impossible to adapt to better methods. (julesandjames.blogspot.ru)
In lieu of a deeper understanding, legacy code used in ocean models has largely represented the marine ecosystem and the biochemical processes that make up the marine ecosystem using simplified equations. (co2coalition.org)