These flappers in my area are Verizon technicians who simply are not spending the extra few minutes to cut closer to the splice. I do understand that the copper in this area is in poor shape and Verizon won't spend any more time than it has to on it because FiOS is available.
It would not shock me if Verizon abandons fiber if/when a suitable over the air system becomes available for residential/home office use.
