@Black-Square Hello! Thank you for taking the time to respond and consider my thoughts. I got the 2600 number from an example of a A36 for sale on trade-a-plane. I can link a few examples of 90s era Bonanzas.
Here is an early 80s model (still with the 520 engine which I believe is lighter): N614MM It has a useful load of 1179 and weighs 2420 empty.
Here is a 1999 model with only 1040 useful load (I suppose you can figure out the empty weight by subtracting that from the max gross but there are so many max gross weight increase STCs it is hard to tell what max gross is for a specific aircraft): N316P
Here is another 1990s model with around 1050 useful load. They get crazy heavy towards the end. N6255J
I know that there are a ton of STCs that boost the useful load. Some of them don’t even involve changing anything on the airplane. The biggest one is the tip tanks. Adding the tip tanks, depending on the type used, can make your useful load go up to like 1400. The company D'Shannon sells a bunch of gross weight increase kits on their website: here
Maybe the numbers you saw where aircraft that had those STCs?
I am really enjoying your wonderful products, your Bonanza is my favorite so far. Just putting it out there, I love Cessna P210s. Pressurization, turbocharging, deice boots, and weather radar! All from a single piston engine! Now that sounds like fun! It is a plane with really unique challenges as it has detonation and engine temperature problems in the climb and at high altitudes. You can read Richard Collin's article on his ownership of one to get a taste for how fun this would be in a flight sim: here I am sure you would get a kick out of it even if you don’t like the idea of a P210.
