The forward facing drive is primarily for safety - keep the prop as far away from a "surfer" that might take a spill.
Relative to wake shape, a lot of these boats have sophisticated ballast systems that will suck in water and based on your settings can shape the wake a certain way. The ballast systems, since they are sucking in lake water, can be a vehicle to transport invasive species.
From what I have seen, these boats when used responsibly on big water are fine. Its when they are used on small lakes, too close to shore, or operated by whoopleheads that you run into problems.