About the operation of swivel seats in general...based on many many years of experience with the Westfalia seats, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle...
By that I mean the operation of the swivel seats depend on many factors which seems to change over time (like if the door is open, if the armrest is up or down, how much the back seat is reclined, if there is a steering wheel or not, where is the seatbelt at that moment, is it daylight or night, is the glove box open to get the bottle opener, how drunk you are, etc, etc).
I do agree that the passenger side seems to be a lot more useful than the driver one. I also personally would prefer not to alter the driving position (I am not super tall).
I would probably just get the passenger side if going aftermarket.
I don't have any problems at all rotating the DS/PS Scopema swivel seats in my current van, no opening door, no push down parking brake, etc. 
