I have a large number of aircraft four-strokes. Most started out with the bent intake manifold and the carb tucked out of reach behind the cylinder. The exception being LASER which has its carb straight on the head.

Now I have turned up new manifolds and have my carb where it should be, just like the Laser, but of varying designs and lengths. All run superbly and with great reliability. Four- strokes in my experience have much better suck than two-strokes, so the need to have the fuel in point low down is not there.