(Just glancing in here, may be repeating some things.) Also familiar about that design, the via-in-pad suggestive of internal routing or planes. In particular I recall similar design practices on some old IBM network card (ISA Ethernet) I had, and on Tektronix boards particularly of the vintage of my TDS460. Especially for Tek I think, and, not sure about others, I think the priority for inner layer routing was a...reliability thing? Maybe frustrates RE too, I guess.
Tim