I was just cooking wings on my 2010 performer, both charcoal baskets on the left side under the lid where it is hard to reach. So the vent is on the right, beside the table, easy to access the meat, that's what got me thinking seeing your pic's. So I spun the lid around so the handle was at the rear, not pointing to the table. It's not hard as I thought to use the slide aside, but the therm (not accurate) points at the table and can't read easy..I have a little case of OCD so I wonder about things like this too,,,,,,seems backwards to me