The coupler itself is too tall, which adds to the appearance of riding too high. Lamentable, but, given the track standards 45 years ago, quite understandable. A scale height coupler would probably have uncoupled regularly on some of the joints, and especially with wheel drop at switch frogs. When the then-Kadee couplers were designed, N scale was little more than toy trains, and some of the standards show it. Unfortunately, it's hard to change standards, as the prototype has found out over the years, because there's so much money and labor invested in the old way, and the old way still works.
A standard gauge knuckle coupler and air hose from 1917 will work fine in today's trains, although the coupler won't be AAR-approved for interchange. That's the problem with trying to convince railroads to try advanced freight car braking systems, or the European railroads adopting automatic couplers. They either have to work with the current standard, or everything has to be changed at once.
