Hello Bill,
Hope you and the family are well.
I know the obvious, and perhaps correct, reason for the spacers is to set the car height at the front.
There were, apparently, two different heights available. For some reason, I have not yet been 100% convinced it was just to set the height. I wonder if Helmut, Hans, whoever, had another reason. They are quite an intricate design just for a height spacers. Enquiring minds want to know.
Edit: according to the parts book that I have, these spacers were not used on....any 1600-2/1602 model, no 1802 model, 2002ti, 2002turbo, 2002 trg auto and 2002tii trg, but were used on the rest. I wonder if this is true.