Return to the /26\ FSB 'Lightening Cut'

[Justin Hell]

Something I just noticed, and checked the guide site to see if anyone else did...it seems as if nobody did.
Starting with the only example of the 1.6m /26\, which may have been fitted with surplus parts when converted to a paratrooper...but more noticeably in the 78-79 (80?) /26\ SKSs, they returned to the lightening cut style FSB.  Best I can see, the Late M21 also has them...

Why?

Seems to me as if all surplus would have been diverted from /26\ to the smaller arsenals that continued SKS production while /26\ was toying with the T63, or possibly used up by the time they abandoned for a time, the lightening cut AT /26\.

Not only do I not buy the whole lightening aspect...but now I am really curious why at first Russia did not have them, then they did....started China off with them, who then abandoned them....only to return to them years later.  Seems weird, and makes me curious as to the actual nature of why they were ever implemented in the first place...well, and then the second.

Thoughts?