Resident equipment guru Vince G CSN MFT has spoken. Like Keith says, Goodrum is full of crap. Listen to this guy talk about training and equipment. It is all sour grapes because he uses bands and other nonsense instead of good gym equipment. Guys like him are what the industry should be ashamed of. They have no proper qualifications and have very little experience in gyms. This self-styled personal trainer is a charlatan who shouldn't be advising anyone else about exercise. Thank goodness he doesn't have the funds to open his own facility. What a dreamer. $4000 is all he is going to spend on equipment. What a buffoon and total fool. Most well-equipped gyms spend $200,000 to over $1,000,000 on equipment.
The leg press with two sleds could be handy for athletes and anyone wanting a different leg machine. Ray Mentzer is the first guy I saw doing one-legged leg presses. Yep, they can be done and are quite effective. So there are all sorts of protocols that can be done on those machines. Exercise physiologists will like to have them for clients.
The reason you start the leg press with bent knees is because you have to get into the loaded machine to start with. So stoppers are placed about 1/3 of the way from lockout. If you didn't do this how would you load the plates on a machine? You have to pick a height that suits most people. Also, you need a safety catch that requires the sled to be lifted some distance before disengaging.
The sleds on the first machine look like copies of what I made back in 1987.