Another anomalous GE model and I've seen a couple of these out there.
Those comedians down in Louisville were creating models by the seat of their pants. You're absolutely correct here; a BOL model like this normally wouldn't have been fitted with a door pedal and a magnetic latch which was a "step-up" feature. Although up to the middle Sixties, GE dryers had more pedals than handles, the two or three lowest models had a handle and an ordinary friction closure for the door. GE model lines always had a supreme TOL, but their BOL's were like calculus problems, they had many, many models that APPROACHED absolute BOL, but there was always one lurking out there that went even lower.