>> Date: Mon, 20 May 2024 14:26:46 +0100
>> From: Kirill A. Korinsky <kirill@korins.ky>
>> 
>> On Mon, 20 May 2024 13:53:15 +0100,
>> Jason McIntyre <jmc@kerhand.co.uk> wrote:
>> > 
>> > i don't know if there's a reason, but if your change goes in, i suggest
>> > simply removing the note from the man page, since it hardly seems worth
>> > noting if we display them all...
>> > 
>> 
>> digging shown that it was a part of original import from NetBSD. NetBSD
>> replaces that 4 into 3 ~20 years ago [1] which was made depends on terminal
>> width [2] which was heavy reworked few years ago [3]
>
>Right.  The default of 4 is almost certainly chosen such that the
>default output fits on a standard 80 character terminal line.  And
>that is still the only reasonable default.  So the diff should not go
>in.

Yes that is the obvious reason.  But kids these days.