The STRPREPRC utility has been born when we started using a Software Change Management System (CMS). The CMS of our choice came we a list of default object creation command for each object type to compile the objects. Of course that list could be tweaked to match our needs.
The problem was to specify object specific parameters, which is often necessary for printer or display files. Those parameters were stored in a database under the cover and not visible to the developer who had to maintain an object.
That was the point when STRPREPRC was born. That also explains the somewhat strange parameters of the utility, for example &TYPECODE or &U0-&U1.