Clearly there are several permutations and combinations that work well.
One thing that has me up on the bow is to keep an eye on the angle the chain makes coming up, so that I can give hand signals to the Admiral at the helm, upper or lower.
She doesn't need to control the windlass, and with this combination, I don't need to control the engines. If I am alone (this hasn't actually occurred yet when retrieving the anchor) I wouldn't be able to remain at the bow, so would go to the lower helm (the one without a windlass control) to operate the engines.
I also need to be at the bow to control the buildup of chain in the locker. Knocking down the pile before it gets to the point of falling over on itself is important in my boat, and has to be done at east every 50 ft. I do this by using the manual cranking bar for the windlass, which I reach down into the chain locker through the 4" deck access pipe, and use it to direct the chain to fill the low spots, as it comes in, or to knock over any buildup.
Once (luckily not repeated) I raised a car-hauler trailer on my CQR. I absolutely needed to be at the bow as this behemoth rose to the surface. ( I released it outside the anchorage, in deeper water).
If ever there is anything fouled on the anchor, I would want to be at the bow.