I think the photo is also slightly misleading. If you are looking at the straddle location against the headtube they look the same, but the camera angle is different and it looks like the in the marketing shot the brake is on. The actual length from brake anchor point to where the straddle cable meets the straddle looks pretty short in the first pic.
Obviously the 'shorter the better' maxim is nice and easy to remember but there is a minimum practical length. The first pic looks not far from that to me. The second could be shorter, but doesn't look that bad. To give some perspective, the U-brake I had to set up was on a BMX and the seat-tube is between the brake and the straddle, so the minimum straddle cable length is hampered by having a tube in the way. That makes it a lot longer than your bike above!