Mark,
I call the operator position of the bandsaw the "front". Sorry for the confusion! So you are correct that side exit means the right side when standing at the "front" or operators position. I'm a fan of massive single trunnions, but I certainly don't look down on double trunnions. If you look at the higher end saws, you'll see mostly single trunnions with large amounts of bearing area. Look at a DoAll or a Powermatic 81 and you'll see single trunnions with between 35 and 40 square inches of bearing area. Single lockup bolt that locks the table tightly enough to support the massive workpiece weights these saws are designed for. Page forward to todays steel frame Italian saws. The Laguna 16HD, and the 18 inch Resaw Master both use single trunnion designs, as does Agazzani. The double trunnion design also makes it usually more difficult to adjust the lower guides except for the elegant if somewhat complicated Delta 14 design.
To Vans point about having to turn the blade 90 degrees at some point with either design, I submit that if the fence rail standoff is larger than the max blade width, as it should be, there is no need to turn the blade at all on a front exit slot.
Proponents of the double trunnion will say that single trunnions require greater table overhang (cantilever). That is generally true, and the double trunnion allows the use of a somewhat lighter table. The distance from the front of the table to the "true" anchor point (the point where table load is transferred into the machine frame) is the same on both designs.
Did I say we could argue the point just like Ford vs. Chevy? I need to go build something!
Regards
Bob