Well, no kidding... warehouse workers like the monotrol and Linde dual pedal setup. I'm sure for simply stacking pallets and unloading trucks they are great, but that's not what a typical shop uses a forklift for. If a dock worker drops a pallet, he just loads it back up and sends it on to the customer (as evidenced by a lot of machinery I have repaired due to damage in shipping). If you drop a 3,000lb assembly on your co-worker because the truck revved up in fwd when you tried to tilt the load up and instinctively stepped on the brake and got the rev pedal instead... As milacron said, they probably got them really cheap.
Actually, on the better forklifts, you have three pedals, left is brake/clutch, center is brake only. That's the easy way to have total control over movement. You can just ease your foot over to the center pedal while in gear and you are then able to load the drivetrain against the brake. No jerking or rolling back, takes all the slack out of the system for super precise movement when inching stuff into place.