I suspect they were limiters either fully extended or fully bottomed out. My 5 speed 1997 has them as well. I don't think any others do though in my fleet.
Its possible they changed the length for the lowered suspension starting in 2000
I believe all LCAs are the same length, but I guess we won't know without measuring. I can tell you that 2WD upper links are about an inch shorter than 4WD.