I’ve seen them called “Stop Lines”, “Balk Line”, etc. The thick line painted on the road at a Stop Sign.
You’re supposed to stop before the line, but a lot of the time there’s a bush or other obstruction so you can’t see any crossing traffic. You have to creep forward until you can see anything.
Is there a reason for this? Is it done on purpose? It makes sense if there’s a crosswalk or something, but I see it a lot where there shouldn’t be any pedestrian activity.
It’s often intentional to obstruct vision, since it’s the only real way of making drivers actually slow down. Even someone willing to run a stop sign isn’t willing to drive at speed into an intersection they can’t fully see.
That doesn’t really require placing the line further back, but it may have been part of the motivation, along with what the others said.