yes, my guess is they wanted the chain to sit more prominently on a disc, being a horizontal heavy design,
it's hard to accomplish otherwise,
edge to edge helps, but not great, either way it should be something finalized, with Hash or community.

People seem to be infatuated with putting logos on coins, with crypto-currency,
and since NXT isn't just a coin, perhaps just
not including it on one in branding could help.