Vince, great line on the "Welcome to Repro Depot!"
Leroy, the ones that you referenced from Snyders are not authentic looking. They are USA made, --and are likely much stronger than the ones available from Brattons but some folks want to purchase something is more correct looking if they are doing a restoration. Compare the pictures of the two.
Lets discuss 'real world' about the Brattons spring hangers (shackles). I know they are foreign made, but there are good products NOW coming from 'off-shore' too so using the excuse that they are foreign made does not necessarily mean it is a bad thing does it? I have never had one of the sets from Bratton's give an issue ...yet. Will you or I? The problem I have is that when we turn out as many cars as we do, there are not enough good original ones to fill the needs.
Now with regard to the thought about bottoming the nut out and then backing it off, it really has more to do with the bushing itself, doesn't it? If the bushing is the correct length, THAT becomes the proper spacer. Has anyone actually compared the dimensions of the reproduction to prints at Bensen to even see what is different? I suspect that most folks really don't care except to the point that they are giving all the market will bear for what is out there and do not wish to pay more money for something that is more authentic.
One thing that I have often wondered is 'why' the one you have pictured actually broke where it did. Theoretically there should be a steel sleeve (bushing) that should be spreading the load over the entire length of the spring eye or perch. Otherwise the logical place they would have broken would be in the large area between the two grease zerks. I have always wondered if the broken unit could have also been damaged during installation from lack of using a spring spreader, --or not using it properly. While I do agree with Vince's assessment of that unit, it does appear that there have been quite a few of these repro units that are in service over the years that have not broken. Whether or not, they are a issue waiting to happen, or whether there were some issolated instances of issues will remain unkown to me, --but again, I am very limited in what my options are for replacements.