Originally Posted by
rickair7777
The 737 (which had already gotten engines wider than the original during previous upgrades) simply had no more room under the wing. Lengthening the gear would be difficult (since the wing box was designed around that) so they relocated the engines forward and upwards, simply to fit them under the wing. So no advantage to that at all, just something they had to do by an accident of history. Which of course lead to the MCAS debacle.
I’m not sure I would call it an accident of history. When Boeing built the 737NG they completely redesigned the wing. By that time the trend toward ever higher bypass engines (along with their larger size) should have been evident. When they were designing the new wing they should have made the changes required to the wing box to accommodate a taller landing gear.