I understand your point about the placement. If you have the throttle linkage on the outside of the engine, the needle valve is near the exhaust which can make it a little difficult sometimes to adjust it without burning your fingers. If you have the Throttle arm in the centre of the engine, there is often not enough room between the firwall and the arm to fit a clevis. Experimentation is the key here.

I'm not familiar with the Hobbistar but I have used various configurations of z bends on different planes and they work well. Otherwise - locate the arm on the outside of the engine and a setup like Hobbsy shows works well. You may want to make an extension for the needle valve from a piece of wire to be able to adjust it easily.