You could always try it, and let us know how that works for you....

I can't really criticize it for objective grounds, but the "How to Pack" diagrams on the Osprey and Deuter websites show dense, heavy stuff in the middle of the pack, toward the wearer's back (framesheet), with lighter stuff packed over, under, and in "front" (toward the outside of the pack) of the heavier stuff. That's how I've always packed, and it seems to make the pack carry well, with a well-placed center of gravity.

"Food low" seems wrong, interpolating from my experience with sandbags trying on packs in a store. When you let them load the bags into the bottom of the pack, it always seems to make the pack pull backward and down - which indicates that the center of gravity isn't where it needs to be. Put some pillows or air-filled bags in the bottom, then add the sandbags, and you get a much better ride.

Sleeping bag on bottom, then inflatable pad and clothes, then tent (toward front) in same layer as food and stove (toward frame), then rain gear on the very top. Tent poles down the side. Rain gear on very top. Lunch and snacks in outer pockets or lid, along with water, filter, TP, and first aid/repair/little stuff. When I hit camp, rain gear (in a stuff sack) goes on the ground. Tent gets put up. Food and stove go on ground, soon to move to cooking area; pad gets inflated and put in tent; sleeping bag and clothing get tossed in tent, along with pack. Done.

This "tip" was written by Cliff Jacobsen; I've read some of his stuff over the years, and finally stopped doing that. He seems to fall into the "I'm the only one who knows how to do this, and I'm never wrong" crowd - the same folks that give bum advice all the time, and refuse to consider that there might be other ways to do things. ("We've never done it that way" are the six most dangerous words in the English language.) "It'll build character" is often the main support for their reasoning. I read the Backpacking Merit Badge Handbook once, back in the nineties. That's 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back.