I saw this neat video of Italian gameplay this weekend and noticed that New Kid (Amico) is located in the opposite corner of the verb menu (among other differences). It made me wonder how much of an impact this has on optimal time. The first screen seems like it would be faster at least, but maybe the 50hz/60hz difference negates the gains. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has the Italian version (or other languages with changed menus), if there is an observably different optimal time due to this.

50Hz would definitely kill any noteworthy advantage, but other than that I can only contribute: the German version has 'new kid' in the exact same place as the English original. Various other verbs are re-arranged.