Then of course this is MY guess as a structural engineer looking at what the purpose of this cross bar is. I may be all wet. Obviously, either the connection changed or the yamaha design engineers discarded the need for tension in this bar if the torque values have been reduced.
Actually, Yammi engineers were under orders to change a dozen things on the Gen II bikes. After the mech guys were done, and marketing had came up with the "FJR" logo on the side panels after a late night brainstorming session, they were outta ideas. Desperate, they grabbed Joe Torqueasaki from the closet he'd been sequestered in since the infamous "Sumo drain plug" incident. Under threat of being traded to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp, he shocked them all by coming up with a
reduced torque requirement for the t bar, and a legend was born! Really!