I agree it's probably too low for just a scope.
Especially if you start hanging stuff on it like the AN/PVS series of starlight scopes, etc.
I'd wager the Vietnam-era M21 rifles, as issued with their Leatherwood ART scope/mount systems, were hard to get a good cheek weld on, also. Maybe if they used the leftover M1D Garand leather cheekpiece. Here's one from that timeframe:
Same problem with other military rifles adapted to optics. Note how high the scope sits on the British No4Mk1(T) Lee-Enfield sniper, they added a wooden cheekpiece to the rifle's comb. The scoped Swedish M-96 Mauser with the Ajak optics, the scoped Russian Mosin Nagant with their PU scopes, the scoped Belgian SAFN-49, the scoped French MAS-49, scoped German H&K G3, and I'm sure several others, all sat with their scope's bore axis way above the comb of the rifle's stock.
It's not an insurmountable problem, in fact, the current M14-based DMR uses an adjustable comb on a McMillan stock. The Israelis did the same with their M14's, just like Springfield, Inc. does with their current batch of commercial M21's.
I went for the cheap and easy. Two allen screws, and the comb riser is off my rifle. The same allen wrench will remove the scope, so I'm set for High-Power matches if I so desire.