I'm going to, as a white belt with no real experience, throw in my two cents, so take that as you want to.
It depends. I know, that sounds kind of like a pussy-out answer, but from what I can tell, it really does. If, at the end of the path, you wanted to say, set up an omoplata via Kung Fu move, then playing on your side will make that happen better. It aids your flexibility, and gets you closer to pulling the leg out. I'd say for the majority of the basic RG path, on your side can only help you, and not hurt you. However, if you're playing the double bagger options, the entire idea (from what I've gathered) is to keep the guy square with you; that opens up the end options of slipping the foot under the armpit and going for all the subs it offers. Being squared up, and therefore on your back, seems to work fine if you're locking the guy to you with double bagger and going for subs (since the entire idea of double bagger is to prevent exploding and rolling out, stay square, and force the submission). However, if you want to branch out to an omoplata and just play the basic path, ending with the sub or controlling the roll, it seems to be best to play up on your side a bit.
If any of that is wrong, PLEASE correct me, I could learn something from that. However, best I can tell from playing it and studying it like a mother fucker, those are the pros and cons to playing side vs. back.
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