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@EdwardZ
Up into the 1970s-- and even in the 1990s--- some very good frames came with mudguard eyelets. They are not the sign of a lower-end frame. Most of the high end bicycles--- made using Reynolds DB 531, chromed etc-- pre-Italo bike boom (mid 1970s) I've seen had them. There was not that vast a difference between frames for tourist and racing bicycles back then... It was with the "racing bike boom" that they seemed to start to vanish as people came to associate them with "half-racers". Part of the problem was also the increasing dominance of Campa's sidepulls.. Introduced in 1968 they replaced the Mafac centerpull as "must have" and also reduced clearance leaving little room for mudguards...
Merckx through the steel era offered as add-on options among other things pump pegs, chain pegs, hangers for starting numbers and chrome.