It looks like it they wanted to use their existing special field management keys (field advance and field backspace) with tab being a different user experience. [0] Document does even use the word "Tab". "Field Backspace" seems to duplicate "Home" key usage under some conditions.
To be fair, Microsoft & Bill Gates are bad at quality user experience. "Ctrl+F" differs through their applications.
[0] https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibm525xGA2onDisplaySys...
*Edited.
The more I think of it the current TAB (SHIFT+TAB) key should of been used for entry navigation navigation only while the white space tab should of been something such as "SHIFT+SPACE".
"To be fair, Microsoft & Bill Gates are bad at quality user experience."
In some ways. Gates deserves never-ending enmity for plaguing us with backslashes in paths. But in others, Microsoft advanced the state of UI and UX more than anyone else in the '90s.
"Would of?"