Thanks paigeoliver, I thought this was going to be a buried post or at most someone slapping me for asking stupid questions
I didn't state this in the original question but I was hoping for either a bit of history to explain this or at least an explanation of the mindset. Born in 1980, I didn't hit my first arcade until about 1985 and back then I had no understanding of much. Since late 80's to late 90's was my time where I visited the arcades I can't honestly say I've ever experience a right handed stick (maybe I never thought much of it at the time if I did).
It's interesting you play pacman with you right hand and street fighter with the left. For me, it feels unnatural for the stick to be in the right hand on any game, maybe I'll try that on pacman and see how I get on.
I wonder, could it be that I only ever attended arcadiums that were run by enthusiast? The cade's I did go to seem to be run by guys that fixed everything themselves and were quite passionate about the games. I remember having quite lengthy discussions on gaming and the machines with them. I would always go to the same ones each time so never experience anything outside this loop.