Thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed this and Flee the Flood.
You're right that technically you can put the cards in a simple row or other arrangement. But there was a conscious decision behind the arrangement:
In Flee the Flood, the shape of the Flood is symbolic of a wave (likewise, the rectangular shape of the Raft represents... well, a raft!). Bleakest Knight inherits the Flood shape from the base game, except in this case the wave is a crime wave!