Why is it weird? What has strength got to do with badly fitting grips? Her original ones were too big and kept bunching up when she was doing certain skills, the kept trying to make them fit better by adding foam, I ordered my dd the next size down which as also narrower, it was a gamble but it did pay off, the improvement was immediate and she started to do skills again that her old grips would not allow her to do (was fine with bare hands).
I get what you are saying about the need for grips, I also can't see the need for grips, especially dowel grips for the group's current skills level, but the coach insists on the girls having them, we really have no choice. I am kind of guessing she wants them all to start of using the dowel grips for their "basic" bar routine (pullover, cast, back hip circle, straddle undershoot dismount) to save them relearning the skills again, that way they are already used to grips when the move to squat on, catch the hip bar, baby giant over), they are already learning the squat on (most girls have it), they are also doing upstart (kip) drills.