Oh, I’m sure they’re aware of the rig, and they’re fine with it because it benefits them. But it may have originated as a practical misunderstanding of the requirements. I’ve written requirement documents and edited badly written ones. Those exterior dimensions bins probably started out as bad requirements. 250 of those bins were built, then someone realized they were wrong. Expensive to replace and it turns out to be useful to the company who provides it. Building a wood box to a given spec is much easier if the spec is for the exterior dimensions, and that would be the general assumption.
Allow me to make two recommendations. You only need a 6 foot/2 meter when traveling, usually. I prefer the Clover Shiro retractable, since it has metric & imperial, is about 2.5” x 2.5” x .5” and is mostly plastic except for one spring, so doesn’t make TSA lose its shit. But it’s a flexible measure, and some people prefer a rigid one. For that, you want a mini-Stanley. They survive better, and they’re not more expensive than the cheap ones. But TSA reads them as a spring and a coil, so take it out of its pocket and leave it top-visible.
