That is one very well built grader ovrszd, especially around the circle area, the engine and cooler design is well thought out, coolers have to be more efficient than a stacked design, l am tempted to go with the right hand side blade lift levers on my next grader because what you said makes a lot of sense, l suppose its just a matter of retraining the brain, keep the reports coming in.
The first edition G models advertised stacked coolers on roll out racks. Bragged about ease of cleaning, etc. The Tier IV edition required a larger cooling system for the engine. I'm guessing Deere was concerned about keeping the engine cool so unstacked the coolers for even better efficiency. I really like the current design.
I understand Construction Companies not wanting machines with one hand controls. As operators change they would have to retrain. For anyone being the sole operator of a grader it's a very good design. A lot more efficient and allows quicker blade adjustments, especially when pushing snow, adjusting both ends of the blade, while turning a corner at speed. I can lift/lower both ends of the blade, rear steer, and steer the front wheels all without repositioning my hands. It's as efficient as you can be with a rack design. Only thing better would be joystick controls. But then how ya gonna hold the camera???