Garage front allows houses on narrower lots. Imagine you have a 50′ wide lot with 15′ sideyard setbacks (total); that gives you 35′ for the structure. Typical 2 car garages are 20′ wide, so now if that garage is set back from the front plane of the house, you only have 15′ leftover for actual living space, whereas if the garage is forward, you can just set the house behind the garage.
Obviously that’s a niche case, and there are jurisdictions that have CCRs about garage forward issues now, but it makes sense why that style became popular in the 80s tract house boom.
If it were up to me, I would put all garages behind the house.
