A question on XTR, XT and LX mechs on 90's MTB

[mk one]

It's very unlikely it was o.e.

I've never seen a new bike supplied with a higher quality front than rear mech in many thousand bike sales.

It's quite easy to twist a new triple derailleur if it's knocked or poorly set up - and if the shop had an xt on the shelf, it would make more sense to fit that rather than order an lx in at the same price.

Marin ran XTR front mech with XT rear, Kona also liked to mix the groupsets up, a lot of experimentation during the 90's though.