looks like it was removed or modified ... that does not look like a factory solder job  IMOP

bob16314
It appears that some cards are made that way..No biggie.
 
GTX 1070 Ti FE PCB

  those solder point look much cleaner

Most likely they use the same PCB for other higher-end 1070 cards that have more power phases and your particular 1070 doesn't have them so they left off the extra parts to make it a less expensive model..They do that kinda stuff, always have.
 
Just search for reviews, teardown, PCB analysis, and you'll see.

Craigslist? Ebay?

ty_ger07
It's the Madman Muntz Muntzing technique.

Interesting read, thanks lol

Kinda like what NVIDIA used to do (and still might): Make a GPU chip they knew full well that would run at a higher clock speed, then downclock it in the VBIOS and sell it at a profit as a "normal/standard" card, then simply bring it back up to a higher clock speed with another VBIOS and call it an "SSC" or whatever, then sell it for even more profit when all along it was an "SSC" to begin with.
 
Another thing was they "laser cut" certain circuits on the PCB to disable certain things, then not cut the circuits and sell it as a higher-end card.