The reason why the Windows Start Menu (and GNOME Shell hot corner) should be in the corner of a display is that for people using a mouse, quickly swiping the mouse into a corner doesn't require any skill or precision. Having a hot centre is a terrible idea for anyone using a mouse because you have to carefully move the mouse into the centre of the display with precision and accuracy (typically by swiping to the corner as you used to do, then also moving the mouse to the centre). Hopefully for Windows users there becomes available an ability to freely adjust hot corner/taskbar settings (see this[1] GNOME extension for an example).
[1] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/4167/custom-hot-corne...