That’s a good question Rumpel.
I have not heard any explanations of the reasons for making a keris with integral gonjo from any of the people who have contributed to my education. However, this is a matter to which I have given thought & I believe the explanation for the existence of the integral gonjo can be explained by a couple of contributing factors.
The early keris, ie Keris Buda, was used in a different way to the way in which later keris were used. It was used in a hammer stroke, with the blade pointing down & the heel of the hand being supported by the base of the blade. This grip style dictates that the heel of the hand needs a relatively broad & substantial form in order to give adequate support, & so that the user’s hand will not be damaged by impact.
The ferric materials that were available for use in blade manufacture in Jawa during the Buda era, ie, pre-Islamic domination, were not as easily forged as became the case in later periods. Not only that, but the skills of Javanese smiths had not yet developed to the highly refined skills that came later. Thus, the convenient & economical way to provide that substantial gonjo on a keris Buda was to make the gonjo as a separate element & fix it in place mechanically.
As the keris blade developed through time & became longer & was held & used in a different way, more or less as a rapier, the design elements were kept, I believe partly because of providing a more economical method of manufacture, & partly because the belief systems that gave cultural & religious meaning to the keris had begun to develop.
By about the middle of the 18th century in Jawa, the keris had developed from being purely a weapon used against human threats & also in hunting, to being a required item of formal dress & a cultural icon. At the same time & continuing into the 19th & 20th centuries, the materials available to smiths became of a better quality, & the skills of the smiths had risen to a point where more complex forge work could be confidently undertaken than had previously been the case.
So, with the availability of materials that were more easily manipulated in the forge, the improvements in forge technology, & the development of a much higher level of ability of the smiths, things became possible that had not been either possible nor practical several hundred years previously.
The cultural belief systems that had created for the gonjo a place in the Jawa/Bali Hindu belief systems, whereby the gonjo was linked to Dewi Ganga (Gangga) and water were not observed in all places where the keris was found, and even in Jawa & Bali it seems probable that not all people were even aware of all the spiritual beliefs that were associated with the keris.
So, if a keris was needed by a person who did not subscribe to the idea that a keris --- indeed, even the sogokan of a keris --- is representative of Shiva, and that other elements of blade design also have a place in cultural & religious beliefs, then a blade that can be produced at a lower cost than a blade with a mechanically fixed gonjo, might very well have been an attractive proposition.
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