Staggering the heights of bolted anchors..?

Curious if anyone could shed any light on this. I noticed climbing out in Wyoming, a lot in Sinks Canyon area, that a lot of anchors were bolted with one bolt being about a foot on average higher than the other one. I thought it was weird and maybe just some gung ho FAer out there just not caring much. But today in Tallulah Gorge, GA I noticed a set of anchors bolted exactly the same way and was wondering if there is some arguable utility to this? I always thought keeping your two bolts as close to level as possible made sense so you could just clip two draws and have the downward load evenly distributed. It occurred to me maybe the argument could be made that it's better to just fully load one bolt and in the event of something catastrophic and it broke off, the other would be more of a backup then? Idk. Any ideas?

Staggering anchor bolts reduces kinking in ropes and reduces the amount of hardware needed for a proper anchor, common practice throughout Europe and many of the more modern American crags. Equal-height bolt anchors with two long-ass chains is an  antiquated American obsession with "equalizing" anchor bolts. 

Lots of debates like this one going on

https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/123237991/good-alternative-to-a-fixed-eye-carabiner-on-staggered-open-systems 

I'm astonished 

i am curious tho....would we not be as stoked on vertically staggered anchors if they were installing them say back in the 80s or early 90s and with non stainless? Have the euro's been doing it forever? I for sure understand that 1 "modern" anchor bolt installed correctly and in bomber rock is far, far stronger than any force that could conceivably be conjured at the top of a route or rap anchor save for factor 2 multi pitch scenario (but even then...) and really, how much advancement has there been in wedge bolt technology in the past 30 years? 5 piece were even around in the early 90s. Just thinking out loud really cause that pull on those vertically staggered is reallll nice but there is also no denying that a roughly equalized, antiquated (as stated above) 'Murican anchor would be able to hold up more, we just dont weigh as much as small cars and its not needed.      

If the vertically staggered are connected with chain there is functionally no strength difference between 2 horizontal ones with chain long enough to come together and touch at the bottom.

...but there is less hardware (chain) to buy, less hardware that sees weight and needs to be replaced regularly (rings or quicklinks).

For rapping purposes everything is super good enough, so use what's cheaper long term with hardware replacement costs. Left has 2 pieces that see equal wear and need frequent replacing, middle has 1 piece that sees all the wear and needs frequent replacing, right has 2 pieces that see wear, but the top piece sees much more wear than the bottom one so the bottom one will need replacing much less frequently, provided it doesn't get a sharp edge from weird rope wear angles or something.

This staggering can be a function of the rock type and quality, were both areas limestone? I've done vertical staggering in limestone where it is functionally better for the strength of the bolts to not go into the same bedding layer with both bolts, the limestone had lots of pockets and cracks and I was worried about strength in putting both in the same bed layer.

Desert Rock Sports wrote:

If the vertically staggered are connected with chain there is functionally no strength difference between 2 horizontal ones with chain long enough to come together and touch at the bottom.

...but there is less hardware (chain) to buy, less hardware that sees weight and needs to be replaced regularly (rings or quicklinks).

For rapping purposes everything is super good enough, so use what's cheaper long term with hardware replacement costs. Left has 2 pieces that see equal wear and need frequent replacing, middle has 1 piece that sees all the wear and needs frequent replacing, right has 2 pieces that see wear, but the top piece sees much more wear than the bottom one so the bottom one will need replacing much less frequently, provided it doesn't get a sharp edge from weird rope wear angles or something.

I try to stagger the bolts like your middle diagram. Except I leave out the chain. The bottom ring gets no wear or next to nothing.

To set up a TR, just bring 2 alpine draws and adjust the lengths to get as close as possible to equal. It doesn't need to be perfect either. One is "super good enough". The second is a backup.

You clip opposed draws to the single ring. The ring is rated to something stupid like 50kn. 

Or feel free to clip the hangers, the chain, the ring, etc and pre-equalize your tr anchor with a cord or long sling. it's all bomber.