Interesting question. I have wondered about this before too.

All of your points are spot on in both options.

I think most home theater rooms are not large enough to have more than one row of seats if they use their shorter wall dimension as front to back. I have seen some larger rooms that do have enough room, and they usually can do 5 or 6 seats wide with 2 rows.

I agree with you that not wanting seats along the back wall for better sound is also a big one.

-Dave

M80s VP150 QS8s EP500s
ravenmanor.com/cinema/