Then I'd say my first answer (and second) they had a bunch of frames left over and did a runout of them, old warrenty frames.
When my mate discovered his 'dale was bent, they replaced the frame, btu his had been 1inch headtube, the replacement was 1-1/4, when that frame went south and they replaced that one, they no longer did 1-1/4 and he had to wait an age while they (australia) sourced a correct old warrenty spec frame from the US. So they stocked old warrenty frames, but at some point they will need to get rid of them somehow...none of his frames came with any model designations, so it'd be a matter of sticker and topcoat and out the door.
This is all my guess though.