I thought the idea for the Bagheera 3 seats was to enable a central driving position?
No, Matra never considered a central driving position, and if you really think about it, it is the worst position for road driving - it is difficult and more dangerous to see past either left or right to overtake. Even McLaren F1 driviers have complained of that, and look how much power they have!
The real reason for the three seats was to continue their idea of a sports car with more than two seats i.e. for the young family man, not just a couple. When most young couples have their first child the sports car has to go. The idea started with the M530 which was a rare 2+2 mid-engined car. Since the Bagheera had to use a Simca power unit and the only feasible one was not very powerful, the idea was born to have three seats across instead of the 2+2 arrangement. It was considered popular enough that they continued it with the Murena.
However, in the case of the multi-arrangeable Espace, one of the ideas was to have swivelling front seats, so that with folded down centre seats and two rear seats, you could have 'four people around a table'. Also the drivers seat was lockable in the reverse position. A good anti-theft idea since how do you drive away a car with the drivers seat facing the wrong way! The swivelling seats and normal centre floor mounted gear selector prohibits the third seat.
When they put the auto selector in the dash on the Espace III to give a clear floor and improve across vehicle access, customers complained so much, they reverted to a floor mounted selector! I liked the dash selector and it reminded me of column changes from the fifties and sixties (which were often accompanied by the front bench seat for three people) but few of todays generations have ever driven with column changes or selectors. It surprises me that it is accepted in the Multipla. However, the whole design of the Fiat is much more 'wacky' compared to a 'conventional' Espace, so I suppose those that are prepared for something that unconventional, can accept the odd gear change too.