Spliced steering line (Spectra) in new Revolution?

I am pretty new to the whole kayaking scene – having owned my used Outback SUV for about 3 months and my new Revolution about 3 weeks. I had a little fraying on the Spectra steering (rudder) lines on the Outback SUV (where they come in and out of the stern), so I ordered some new Spectra line and replaced the left and right steering lines. In the process I was comparing the routing with my brand new Revolution and noticed a couple of differences. The Outback SUV uses white plastic tubes to house each steering line most of the way between the stern and the steering lever. My new Revolution also has white plastic tubes, but they are very short (only a foot or two). Most of the Spectra line in the Revolution just lays inside the hull. My concern though is that one of the Spectra steering lines was spliced together with what looked like a factory knot of some kind. This would prevent the use of the white plastic tubes. Since it is a brand new kayak I would have thought that it would have been one continuous piece of Spectra line between the steering lever and the rudder. Is it common practice to splice Spectra lines in a brand new kayak at the factory?