I would tend to think the gauge wheel idea is simular to a road grader, where the blade is near the power wheels. The steering wheels are a certain distance forward of the blade, not equal. In railroading, we use a tamper to lift and line the track. The tamping heads are very close to the machines rear axle, which rides on finished track. The ratio of distance from tamping heads to rear axle/heads to front axle is 10 to 1, thus the front axle is 9 times the distance from the heads as the rear axle. In effect, each pass over the track will eliminate 90% of surface/profile defects. In practice, two passes will remove 99% of surface/profile defects. If the gauge wheels on the box blade were either moved forward on the Bobcat machine, or further back on a 3 point hitch blade, it would produce better results.
Paul