no,you are not understanding,it is not a left handed banjo,if the short string was on the far sideyoucan play with a plectrum,hit the bum dit then up for the ty.this is eaxactly what maybelle carter did on her guitar[except she playe the melody with her thumb,which of course is an alternative].
I bet none of you have tried taking a tenor banjo putting on light[cgda] gauge strings,tuning it dgdg or dgbg so your top string is your high g,well iam telling you it is very difficult to hear the diference between that and a 5 string banjo,go and check out pateks website.
by having a SHORT string on the opposite side it means you can play similiar to how PATEK suggests but with a flat pick it means your pick is resting after the dit,right where it wants to be to pluck the 5 string up.
the banjo is not upside down,but is speciaaly made so the short string is on the other side,so the head is still to the players left.
the reason I mention this is because,i cant grow nails to frail,and i find a metal pick cumbersome,i can already flatpick having played the tenor banjo and the guitar,so this would be easier for me,it is exactly the same principle as maybelle carter guitar.