Given that it doesn’t look like it could really be doing anything with that placement, maybe it’s a placebo of some sort to deal with someone who is difficult to work with.
I heard that one time she was recording with Dowd and at the end of a take someone messed up. She walked out of the studio because “SHE got HER part right.”
Dowd had to have the band cut the track again, then fly in her vocal phrase by phrase over the acceptable instrumental backing. Remember, we’re talking tape, reel to reel.
I think there are more than a few stories along these lines.
I love a lot of her music, but it strikes me that if you’re working with someone that is so intemperate, you may find yourself clamping tissue paper to places in mics that wouldn’t do anything, as placebo/distraction.