In addition to having a lever that's more suited to your hand and a bar that minimizes the reach, brakes can be adjusted so that the point at which you are applying force is close to the grip length at which your hand can comfortably apply its max force. In other words, you may feel like it's a stretch to grab the lever, but once you pull it a certain distance, then if feels comfortable in your hand and you can apply your maximum braking force. But if it grabbed the rim sooner (further from the bar) you would have trouble applying force. Adjusting the caliper to be as close as possible to the rim is not always optimal (though a new bike should always be adjusted this way because the cables will stretch).

Also agree with KnottedYet that brake-only levers could make you happier if you don't get a good fit from Shimano or Campy dual-control levers. There used to be many brands of such brakes (you might get a good deal on used levers) and they almost all had a shorter reach than dual-control levers.