I think you’re right, he seems was originally planned to lean on a table. My theory is that the artist changed their mind but didn’t want to discard an already established pose (since it requires time, work, and often you simply like how it turned out)
There’s indeed a bit of cutting corners obviously, but it’s ok enough to showcase characters imho thanks to an abstract background and a bit of fantasy in placing them. I’m not always a huge fan of this kind of cards though.