For cleaning the front I don't think height matters, its just more surface area to go over with the magnet.
For the bottom I'd 100% say go bare bottom and get a strong powerhead. The key is to key sweeping flow over the bottom and get debris suspended, and it'll go into your filtration. I've had my tank set up for over 2 years now and I think I've vacuumed the bottom like once or twice, and it looks pretty much flawless (In addition to regular flow, I have an extra powerhead that I turn on to essentially "turbo boost" clean the bottom that I leave on for like an hour once or twice a week). Honestly I've never understood people that vacuum their tanks weekly, so much easier to design an aquarium that doesn't need vacuuming
Also, light is seriously overrated and mis-used in my opinion, people that have super strong lights in a rock-scaped aquarium baffle me. Absolutely don't go with a planted aquarium, and beyond that fish themselves don't need or want much light. Go with the least wattage you can get away with and still see your fish, and if they are in a naturally sunlit area don't worry about having the light off completely and have the tank just lit by ambient light. Also, LEDs have angles of where the light is pointed, you want the most narrow beam angle you can get (somewhere 30-45 degrees), that way you put the light down the center of the tank and it only has light on the center of the tank, it doesn't point at the walls. I find that helps a TON with algae growth on the front and side walls, so way less scraping and cleaning.
Over the past decade+ of fish keeping I've realized quite a few little things like this to make cleaning less work, I honestly spend 1/10 the time cleaning my 180 gallon tank now as I did cleaning my 50 gallon tank 10 years ago - and its cleaner. Just make sure to design your filtration system around your comfort level
