Back in the day consoles had two positions, upright and laying down it was touted as a "new standard" on the Americas but was a common thing in Japan.

In the Americas however they just used the same or even cheaper parts for the standup consoles so tue bottom (lol literally sometimes) fell out of the market and users felt that laying down was the better idea(bit nobody decided to reinforce the top to be able to hold a few pounds cuz we all pit stuff on top didn't we lol)

Tldr: Americas are too cheap to provide decent hardware