they have to be as close to the battery as possible also to prevent fire in a case of an car accident. the closer the better !
for example over here your car would loose it's permission to be operated in public traffic & no car insurance is going to pay for your loss in case of a fire if the fuse was installed more than 1 feet away from you battery. I think there is a reason why they made that policy.
Interesting policy there. I hadn't heard that one before, though it makes sense as a failsafe in case of a dead short along the main power line. I usually use a thermal circuit breaker close to the battery. There are some great auto-resetting thermal breakers that are MilSpec on the market now.