- If the limits were set in the usual way before loading patterns,
they would set upper limit on the values that are possible to use I don't understand. As far as I know, the current values for \lefthyphenmin and \righthyphenmin are used at line-breaking time (\par). They can be reset at any time. I've never seen any concept of a format definition setting an "upper limit". They aren't used by \patterns at all. As far as I can see from tex.web.
