I don't know how you would use those steering brakes. Hopefully you won't have to do much of that with the HST. Our M59 has the same thing with brakes and F/R pedal on the same side. Being a largish tractor with a flat floor it has enough room to make it work....uh, sort of work... well, if you stand up and lean to one side while holding onto the front canopy support it you can make it work..... kind of...
Come to think of it, far and away the most complaints about Kubotas that I've heard in the last 15 years are all about the placement of the controls. Feet, seat, and levers are all uniformly poorly designed and poorly placed. Isn't that odd?
One of the world's most popular tractors and they still can't get that part right.
If it wasn't for the way the operator controls are laid out there there wouldn't be much to say against Kubotas. Maybe that's why they do it?
rScotty