OK This may be a rubbish idea or maybe an improvement to the way the Handbrake was designed but when I took a look at it, I could not help thinking that instead of that Forked Spring that keeps the Pads away from the Rotor when the Handbrake is not being used

Why didn't they put the adjusting Rod inside a Compression Spring in between the Two Brake Pads, then you would have some tension to adjust against instead of those Forks which look a bit 'sketchy' to me

I thought about Retro Fitting a Spring, just to try it out except since the Adjusting Rod is almost touching the Rotor, there's not enough clearance to fit one

 

in that era, jaguar engineering was acceptable,, but honest far from the best !
so be it

 

The fork at least allows clearance from the disc to be set for each pad individually. A compression spring while holding pads apart would not allow the same degree of clearance setting each side.
It may also interfere with the self adjuster mechanism.
I don't really see a problem anyway. This design goes back to the 60's and if afforded even basic maintenance seems to do a pretty good job.

 

I suspect a coil would droop with the heat of braking and then drag on the brake rotor and over time wear through, then there is no spring force. With the fork design that can't happen