Lord High Dandygosh

There are 20 sample characters in the Investigator Handbook (Harvey p 47, Pierre to Astrid pages 130-145). The average of the sum of their 8 characteristics is 503.1, far above the the 457.5 expected from die rolls (would have been 460 if the Edu roll hadn't been changed since 6th), or the 460 point buy method. If you account for age adjustments, the pre-adjusted average goes up to 508.6 (ignoring the small expected bumps for education improvement checks). 19 of the 20 characters have totals above expected (poor Sean!). This seems far too large a difference to be chance. The experience packages don't increase characteristics, just skills. I don't see any other way to increase characteristics so much (the other alternative methods can't make that much difference). What's going on here? And by the way, the picture of Erik on page 141 seems to be a total mismatch for his age of 24.