Stooge, I feel your pain. We fly the B1900D/PT6 and do a similarly illogical thing. We carefully look up the torque value for "Reduced Takeoff Power - Bleeds Open" which ends up being 3200 ft/lbs or so. Then at 400 feet we call for "Climb Power," adjust the prop RPM, and invariably nudge the power levers up to Max Continuous Torque of 3750 ft/lbs. Reduced torque/itt for 30 seconds on the roll, then those same values are at the edge of the yellow arc for the next 15 minutes of climb? Makes no sense to me. For that matter, our "book" cruise power settings that we are repeatedly urged to adhere to actually equal max continuous torque all the way up to 13000ft or so.
I suspect this is a smoke and mirrors thing on the company's behalf, either to make a power-by-the-hour deal sweeter or establish a more generous inspection schedule with the FAA.
To further confuse the issue, our full power numbers are bleeds closed, yet our reduced numbers are for bleeds open. If ITTs are truly a concern, why not close the bleeds?
To throw one more wrench into the works, what prevents turboprops from using the relatively simple assumed temperature method instead of a whole different table of power settings and Vspeeds? On a cold day we use the first 1/8th of a 16000ft runway, seems like such a waste.
But I shouldn't expect much. After all, our manuals also indicate that while passenger emergency O2 consumption increases with cabin altitude, crewmember O2 consumption actually decreases. Pilots require only half the flow at FL250 that they would at FL180, such that by FL400, the crew wouldn't need any oxygen at all!! In the event of a depressurization just climb, right? Figure that one out.