Ehhhh, better is a subjective thing. You made your argument well for one range of use cases though.

For me, with my back issues and arthritis, a side by side is better than either. You get the freezer on one side, where you can prioritize supplies based on how easy/hard it would be to pull them out at a given height. The fridge is the same, but it's less likely to have heavy things in it, or at least not heavier than a gallon of liquid, which is easy enough to manage if you have adjustable shelves (we do).

The meat drawer part is kinda brand and model dependant. My best bud has a French door fridge with freezer on the bottom, and their meat drawer is a little deeper than ours, but is only on one side of the fridge, so you can open that door by itself. All of the shelves and drawers are configured to be openable with only one door open. It was a ridiculously expensive fridge though. Doors shut well with a gentle bump in that one as well. Only time it's a problem is when a drawer is open part way.

But, yah, you gotta open both doors to put in large dishes. However, the French door fridges I've used have tended to stay open better, making it easier to get big things in and out overall.

The counter issue is a kitchen layout issue.

I would counter your opinion with "it depends, and there's no objective standard for better"