All the way closed they are very far back with the bend in them. Seem to lay alot better if I flip the controls 180

they can be flipped no problem, if you take them apart, be ready to catch a couple little balls. YOu can also change them so they dont have that "rachet" feel too,

Yes. It is a fun job As Phargle said, set ready to catch spring loaded balls.

Its not that bad of a job, It just helps to have 3 hands,,,,,,

Wouldn't it do the same thing to just turn the whole assembly around in the hole?
IF you like the feel then just move the shifters to the other side.
AND move the cables to the other side.

My dyslexic ass is thinking then it would be pulling when it should be pushing... they are made to be setup either way. We are only talking about a 15 minute job here is you dont drop a ball.... if you work on top of an old bath towel, the ball wont roll away when you drop it either....

The cables push or pull depending on what side they are on. On the front of the control they do the opposite of when mounted on the backside.
If he likes the way the handles feel then he has to change the shiffters to the other side of the throttles. The cables will stay on the same side as they were BEFORE you flipped the assemble around in the hole.

If you want to change the rotation of your Bravo drives all you have to do is swap the props and then move the shift cable from the front to the back and vice versa on the shifter.
Should work the same with flipping the whole assembly around.

If a cable was on the front of the control before that same cable will have to be mounted on the front side to the same lever as it was before the whole assembly was flipped around.
the way it looks to me is the throttles come off the back ( to pull on the cable ) After the assemble is flipped around the cables will have to be connected on the back side to the new port and starboard throttle. The cables will go from the front now to the back and swap left to right. Same goes for the shifters except one comes off the front now and one comes off the back.
Don't mix them up.