Not true. I own a warbird powered by an inverted Saito 1.00. The bottom of the fuel tank is level with the carb and can't be changed due to the design of the aircraft. I installed a miniature ball valve in the carb supply line which is closed during fueling and opened when ready to start. The engine always fires immediately because it was properly broken in and tuned on a bench stand first. Once the engine is running it performs normally on the ground andin the air with no tendency to flood. I agree that in this situation you do have to be careful of the possibility of hydraulic locking should the engine fail to start on the first try, but engine damage is not inevitable if you are aware of what is taking place. Hydraulic locking can occur in almost any setup. The best way to avoid engine damage is to use a starter that is not overly powerful for the application and don't use a car battery to power it. Even in a normal setup with the center of the fuel tank level with the carb, siphoning can occur when the tank is full due to the fact that fluids seek their own level.