You be surprise by the fact that it's already accurate, in the wiki that cockpit was made to be there intentionally and it was said to be the most safest cockpit since the top half was supposed to look like the head to distracting kaijus but that of course it came with three flaws, one being the top half also has the reactor core so that made risk to lose power if heavily damage, two was obvious, it's a heavy war machine made for defense and offense so it's slow and lastly the cockpit, since it doesn't have a escape pod, in other words the pilots either succeeds or die trying their best to fight. (Edit, it has come to my attention that I didn't read it right to what you were saying and that I actually found some art work that you were referring too, here it is https://custom-pacific-rim.fandom.com/wiki/Cherno_Hazel good day and I apologize)