Why are Cases made this way?

So basically I'm using the define R5 as my example in this post as it has a very standard layout.

 

So here is my question, for cases fresh air comes from the intakes at the front and the hot air is exhausted at the back. I don't know why I never thought of this but why is it that the passively cooled components that don't need all the cooling like HDD and SSD are placed at the front directly in front of the nice fresh air whilst the main heat generating components are placed at the back like the CPU, GPU and PSU. It doesn't make sense to me? Is there something I'm missing? Would it not be more efficient to basically invert the classic layout show in the picture? 

 

Thanks

If the GPU and CPU would be at the intake then you would end up actually heating up your other components in some cases since the hot air from the CPU and GPU would move through them.

Therefore since hard disk drives and solid state drives don't produce as much heat they won't heat the incoming air significantly enough to impact CPU and GPU cooling performance.

ahhh OK

Also you would run into I/O problems , compatibility for long GPU's or bigger mobo's etc .

The only thing I would ever change would be having the drives under the psu area , and having the case be shorter and a bit higher .

Check out Silverstone. That is all.

I never bother exausting air out of the back with the exceptions of my psu and if i have a blower style (think reference r9 290) style gpu installed. I usually load 2 fans in the front one on the side pannel one on the bottom and one in the back where the exaust is i that picture then make the top 120mm slots exaust.

with a tower style cooler and a blower gpu it becomes a very nice setup and cools nicely. 

I would like to bless my personal lord and savior silverstone for blessing me with the ability to purchase an own my FT03. and for making 90 degree inverted cases.

Because it works. Also there has been cases made they way you suggest, they are known as BTX and place the CPU at the intake.