The woot altars setup I use ends up having all surfaces of the controller blocked, so I cannot view the diagnostic information presented (item drops, and current power levels)?

My controller setup for the altar are from a top down

layer one:

layer two:

<totem 1> <totem 2>

layer 3
<EnderIO capacitor/dimensional transceiver>

Had several ideas (each with different pros/cons):

1. Could you extend the loot/power view UX so it would also activate when you shift click the the grey block next to the controller (layer 2)

2. Relax the conditions for the totems so they can be placed anywhere on the "flat surface" layer of the altar instead of next to the controller?

3. Extend the functionality of the block that silhouettes the altar layouts (forgot the name of it) so that if you mouse hover over the altar (any block) while holding it, you can view the loot tables and power?

4. I've seen several mods where they honor wrench input (e.g. use RFTools wrench on Refined Storage, or EIO's yeta wrench to rotate Refined Storage blocks...if there is a common interface to identify these--what if you were to display that view if you hold a wrench

I'll certainly look at the 4 suggestions.
However for a quick fix - which may or not be suitable for you, if you use extender blocks and the proxy block, you can put the inventory underneath the controller, leaving the front face clear.

The proxy block allows you to add inventory and power to any of its exposed faces.

Basically put extender blocks in a column where you would normally put the power to the controller. Then at the bottom of that column put the proxy block.