Of the houses I lived in, one sink faced the car port, two faced the side fences. Rather unexciting views. 
I'd understand the ability to watch out if there had been something to see.
Of the apartments, the oldest one had a view to the roof of the neighbouring building and the last two have had open plan kitchens at the back of the living room. In my current one, the sink is in the island / counter separating the living space from the kitchen area so technically I still face a window, albeit quite a distance away.
The earlier photo was wide-angle and distorted the measures a little. The counters are 60 cm deep and the cupboards above only 30 cm deep. This sort of arrangement is common place. This means that there's more than enough room to bend down a little before your head touches the cupboard. Though, on lazy days, I've used it to my advantage by leaning forward and resting my head on the cupboard door while washing (though, my dear brother chucks everything in their dishwasher so not much handwash at their place).
The Australian setups I've come across with cupboards above are measured differently and more awkward in this regard. Different use of space...
To better show the alignment, I've taken a normal photo the other way and placed the outer edges of the dishwash detergent, toaster & kettle and the olive oil behind the stove top to match the upper cupboards (30 cm from the wall). This hopefully illustrates the setup better.
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