Honestly I don’t think Deuter’s advice and yours differ that much. You’re not going to carry weight below your belt line, because if you do you’re wasting energ

Honestly I don’t think Deuter’s advice and yours differ that much. You’re not going to carry weight below your belt line, because if you do you’re wasting energy moving it back and forth as you walk. You’re not going to carry weight above your shoulders, because it’s pretty damn dangerous in anything approaching technical terrain (throws off your center of gravity too much, and risks causing uncontrolled head first falls). So you’re left with how you distribute weight along your back. Deuter’s advice doesn’t distinguish, but the usual thing is heavy, dense things go on the lower back, and as you move up the back you put still-heavy but less dense things, and then lighter but dense, etc. Your sleep system goes at the very bottom, usually in its own compartment, and you put lighter stuff along the outside. This means when you rotate your body, the heavy stuff is close into your center of mass and easily controlled. You reserve the top of the pack for heavily accessed, light stuff. They don’t say this explicitly, but the entire logic of the system revolves around having things that will throw you off your stance as close to your body as possible, so that you remain stable as you move.