More drop at the heel keeps your head erect when shooting iron sights, and provides a very natural pointing movement to bringing the rifle up and finding the sights. It also works better with lighter recoiling cartridges, and Europeans generally use smaller calibers in hunting. It is an old design. If you look at a lot of early American rifles, their stocks were shaped the same way, partly because a lot of the early gunmakers were German, and partly because of the ease of sighting.
When scopes became common, stocks had to be straighter and higher combed to keep your head up and eyes aligned with the sights. Most American rifles had more drop in the stock than now until the early 1960s when scopes became more common.
