Basement toilet on raised platform?

Hi, this is my first post and I have a question I can't seem to find an answer to. My house was built in 1920, upstairs is pretty original, but the finished basement is another story. It appears to have been finished maybe in the 60's if I had to guess. My question is about the toilet in the basement bathroom, they installed it on a concrete platform with steps that sit about a foot and a half off of the basement floor. Any idea on why they did this? I know that in some houses the outside drain line isn't low enough for a proper basement toilet to drain properly, but I don't think that's the case with mine. It looks to me like all of the drains from upstairs exit the house from floor level in the basement. I'm thinking that they did this to avoid cutting into the floor to tap into the existing toilet drain line, so they just ran it over the existing floor and built the platform around it. I would really like to re-do this the proper way as there is only about 5'7'' of headroom in front of the toilet. Has anyone dealt with something like this before?

Your pipes exit at floor level, not under the floor. Therefore there's no grade to have a toilet sit on the basement floor. That's why it's raised.

Think I can get away with just one step? 3 steps seems kind of excessive. The drain exits the house about 8 or 9 feet away from the toilet. I'd just leave it, but headroom is an issue there. I have no idea what the other pipes are going into the floor where the drain exits the foundation. I think one looks like a clean out for the toilet drain but I'm no plumber. I figured since that one went straight into the floor the drain must be below floor level. Thanks for the clarification.

At 9' away you need 2 1/4" of grade. As long as you have that then you can lower the drain as needed.

It must have been done in that fashion possibly for royalty that once resided there, i.e., a THRONE...

I'm moving officer... sheesh ...

You could use a back flush toilet. The outlet for them is 4" off the floor.