In this case, the Charger, Challenger, 300C, and Magnum were all based around effectively the same platform. So I wouldn’t be surprised if those support beams are all direct carryovers. As with many companies, platforming saves them on development costs, # of parts needed to manufacture, crash testing, etc. So even if you do just shave a little bit off the overhead to do so is surprisingly complex.
I’m not saying I love the existing design, but just pointing out there are a ton of considerations that can monkey up those details, and costs that the bean counters wouldn’t approve.
In the case of the Viper, I totally agree. But that car was originally designed in the late 80’s when these hippie regulations didn’t exist. A lot of these rules are very new which means cars that were designed even a few years ago don’t have to take them into consideration.
Case in point - the most recent version of Alias Autostudio actually has a pedestrian impact tool to design where your innocent civilians head should smash so you make sure not to put your hood scoop there. 