Mine drops about 36", so it must be basement hardware. Even with this drop, there have been one or two times I missed the adjustability of the manual style (that is, until it is time to close the awning and all my son (8 years old) does is press the button and it retracts
).
I don't see any issues in changing the hardware, the only time that would be a problem IMHO is if you have a curbside slideout that the awning has to go over.
Stewart