Woz, where have you been?
The site is turning to drivel both you and the big cheese awol. It's been messing with my brain
I think they are intended to be that way up since the square head of the coach bolt fits exactly into the slot on the underside of the plate. You also get some fat washers to hold the plate just proud of the surface you are bolting it to, to accommodate the coach bolt heads. However, that said, you are exactly correct... they do get in the way a little bit for removing that last sprocket. For the smaller sprockets, a Unior 1670/2BI is recommend, but a chain whip doesn't really get in the way.I would suspect you may have the bolts the wrong way, and are protruding upwards too much which would foul the chain whip throw / access.