It's possible to engineer around hurdles like this:

- Put the fridge under a counter on rollers (with a cableway for the necessary electrical hookup).

- Put rolling shelves(with lips) inside the fridge to allow ready access to the bottom storage areas.

Even if consumers won't trade off a little bit of convenience for energy efficiency today, they probably will when electricity is much more expensive.

Do you feel that a vertical fridge with a 'normal' outer door and individual drawers or doors in both the fridge and freezer sections could compartmentalise the fridge and give better energy efficiency and require fewer engineering changes?

I'm inclined to think that engineering improvements to a vertical fridge is easier than the changes required for a chest fridge.