I have been discussing this issue with earth a few times, one of them said they had some issues and they were solved by putting the supply off of the bottom
It makes 0 sense to me to pull water from the top because its hotter, on many home built stoves I've seen water 185 at the top and 140 other places, a disaster looking for a place to happen. Returning the cold ware to the top is un natural and creates more balance inside the water tank. Ideally we'd love to see the whole tank be the same temperature, not 180 here and 160 there and so on, anytime water is laying in there at potentially below 140 were asking for problems