Any idea why the original ac clutch wire was cut and replaced by this one directly from the box to the ac clutch?

 

Not advisable, but I once did the same thing on my buddies Range Rover, because it needed a 1000 dollar processor. That was back in 1995 or so
Car was going to Hawaii to live out it's remaining years and I gave him a switch for the A/C compressor
Far as I know it's still over there and driving around
I would fix your Ford correctly
If you say what you are working on, someone might post a schematic, and you can figure out what's wrong

 

If the AC turns on with the original dash control, my guess is they wanted to bypass the AC refrigerant pressure switches.