I have no idea. All I can tell you is what the the statute says and what the effective date clause says.
That particularly material originates in a Technical Corrections Act which implies to me based on my experience with Tech Corrections bills in the tax area that the original statutory intent was not to apply the 1952 date which was already in the statute but rather the 1986 effective date and the original bill drafter did not get the language and Congress did not want to further amend the statute because it would make it more difficult to read correctly so it provided for the 1986 result in the effective date. But that's just my speculation, based on similar experiences in the tax area.
Read the original Section 1245 (personal property depreciation recapture) and the effective date clause for a good example of a statute where the application date and the effective date are different.