Perhaps you will enjoy this blogpost by Bishop Peter Robinson, presiding bishop of the UECNA. He is English by birth and training and is more likely to know how this actually works than an American. http://theoldhighchurchman.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-view-from-north-end.html The one time I have seen it attempted the table was oriented in the Eastward position and the rector ended up standing sidewise at the extreme end for most of the service looking rather odd. I suspect it was a case of someone having just attempted something without being entirely sure how it should look.
Exactly! I understand intellectually separating the altar by a screen, as an icon of the holy of holies in the Old Testament, but my intellect only has so much control over my emotional preferences. Being in the same room as the consecration is really moving. Perhaps I'm a bad Orthodox. A lot of parishes have a low lattice iconostasis, rather than a solid floor to ceiling one, which I like better. Not that my preferences can or should dictate anything about the Byzantine rite, but I live in the West and I often like the Western way of doing things.
I don't think Western Orthodoxy is bad Orthodox. I see Anglicanism at it's best as being some sort of Western Orthodoxy.
Since Christ, by His death and resurrection, removed the barrier between God and man, as symbolized by the tearing of the curtain (Matt. 27:51) separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, having a screen to continue representing a long-since-removed barrier seems anachronistic to me. (Hebrews 9:1-12; 10:14-22) The way to the Most Holy has been opened to all believers, and Anglicans' way of celebrating this miracle is to have an open path and view to the consecration. (Being reminded of Christ's miracle on our behalf should definitely be moving!)