the reason I thought of mentioning it was because of this riders concerns about frame size, and the issue brought up of hitting knees on bars.
Now I can't speak for how a person feels on a bike, and I'm sure bar ends add another factor in terms of touching knees on them at stops or whatever maybe, but it was interesting for me to actually consciously take note of my knee position when out of the seat and climbing full gas.
The hill I was going up was relatively steep, 13% maybe, and I was going slowly and so was leaning forward a fair amount, but probably no different than in a strong sprint for a changing street light or whatever.
I do suspect however that some riders could feel uncomfortable with this, depending on dropbar riding experience, general comfortableness on bikes, and perhaps simply how coordinated they are and their bike handling skills.
I have no idea if my setup is any different than many other riders, all I know is that I clearly like the distance my bars are from my seat for being comfortable on the hoods, as well as regularly using the tops for little breaks and for when climbing steep hills seated.
I can even comfortably do that "rest forearms on the tops and drape my hands over the front of the bars" TT position that you see racers do sometimes when in a break on their own, so I can't see that my setup is too tight for my size, but probably age and personal flexibility play a big part in terms of how a given rider feels stretched out forward--although clearly for touring, a more conservative layout is generally appreciated and useful for long days in the saddle.
anyway, just some observations