• “Normally the drive side bearing in the middle of the hub”I don’t think so.

    It's true (within the bounds marketing speak) for a lot of hubs, both boutique and mass market OEM, where the freehub stator doesn't extend beyond the hub shell. The hub shell is supported >50mm inboard of the DS dropout, which is close enough to the middle.
    Of course, it's not true for typical Shimano designs which rigidly bolt an extended freehub stator to the hub shell, or for Mavic FTS types which extend the shell through the middle of the free hub to provide a support bearing more like halfway from dropout to centre.
    The question is whether it matters. Look at, for example, the Hope Pro 4. The hub shell is supported on the axle inboard of the DS flange, the bearing must be pretty close to overlapping the centre plane of the wheel. Do we hear a lot of short bearing life and broken axles? Not really.

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