This. No way a newer house would normally have 2x random pillars in the middle of the floor if they weren’t needed. These days it’s all about space. (*)

You’ll find under the decorative dry wall, there’ll be either a timber or steel post in there supporting whatever is above it.

(*) unless the original owners had them built for decoration because they had something between them .. a large fish tank for example ..

rd

It’s not. Someone’s just cut off the overlap poorly with a circular saw when they put that step there.

You can see the grain in the timber is straight.

rd