Given my 'druthers' I'd keep the shifter either on the 'tree' or on the console AND it would be the usual lever - unless it were the dual clutch with paddle shifters (on console.) That's just my druthers for location. I HATE cars with the shifter coming out of the middle of the "dash" just above the console. It feels all wrong.
BUT no matter where they decide to place the shifter, I want as much control as possible over the car. Some auto-trans models today have only P R N D. There appears to be no option to use a lower gear at will. There are times when it is advantageous to have a lower gear (hauling larger loads and or up-hill, long decent of a hill, etc.) Also, most cars do not provide it, but I had a Subaru Loyale which had the ability to "launch" the car in 2nd gear instead of DRIVE which starts the car out in "low" gear (auto-trans). This car had on demand 4WD but starting it out on ice in D the wheels might spin because of the excess torque - especially when the fuel injection was enriching the mixture during warm-up. Placing it in "2" cut the torque and allowed the car to gently extricate itself from almost ANY slick situation. Only problem with that car (and I'm guessing most 4WD cars): It would get you into trouble faster than the brakes could get you out of it. It gave a false sense of traction which the brakes didn't share. I forget if it had ABS - probably not.
As far as a console is concerned, most cars aren't really wide enough to provide a middle front seat (not really a middle back seat either - but that seems to be standard.) My guess is that the safety issues of adding a middle front seat (air bags and safety harness) would cost too much for the added room. We've adapted to vehicles with 5 seats. If your family is too big for such seating, you have options for minivans or 3-row seating in an SUV.
Back before seat belts (and especially back before harnesses and air bags) I had a 1960 Ford Falcon (a COMPACT) that more-or-less comfortably seated six teenagers (before the middle-age spread set in.) But now we're talking ancient history. YMMV