Isn't that cos they wanna repurpose this figure as Reflector later on?

I agree with the scope-behind-the-head thing as being rather superfluous. You can easily adjust the shoulders to be higher though. I do wish the whole back-shoulder assembly locked on tighter, as it easily unlocks during play.

As posted on the action pose thread, my attempt at giving Perceptor a microscope mode -- I just tried to transform him like G1 Perceptor as much as I could to give him a "G1 accurate" microscope mode.