Ray Samuels B52 headphone amp as preamp?

Yeah, one of my big pet peeves are that a number of headphone amps use the Dact 24-stepper. I also never get beyond 5-6 steps with any headphone amp that uses this.
I don't even know why anyone would make an attenuator with so few steps. I would actually replace it with another attenuator if I could get it done with confidence.
I don't know if it's a cost issue or a performance one.
It's been a long-standing issue on head fi but it persists.

I'm wondering if it's a design fault in the Dact that seems to produce so much gain in the first few steps. I think it should probably be more logarithmic.

Thanks Jrinkerptdnet. That makes sense to me that it was meant for a passive preamp. Therefore it just seems puzzling why it is used so often in active preamps/headphone amps.

Thanks again Jrinkerptdnet.