The crown facing the hand is a carryover from traditional watches where the user would need to regularly wind or adjust the watch's time. It doesn't really have any benefit now, and just needlessly exposes the crown to shock damage and irritates the back of the hand if the watch falls towards the wrist.

Seiko diving watches and some others move the crown to the 4 o-clock position where it's slightly less exposed:

https://www.chronopolis.co.uk/blogs/news/the-8-best-watches-...

Some watches move the crown to the left side, like the Sinn EZM 3:

https://www.sinn.de/en/Modell/EZM_3.htm