Does the center of lift have to be in line with the center of mass?
In my opinion the vertical position of the center of gravity (CG) is negligible.
First of all the variation will be very small. Between an airplane with lead on the bottom of the cargo and an airplane with all passengers on the upper deck the CG will not move that much. And statistically the CG will probably be somewhat around the centerline of the fuselage.
Then, yes drag forces and engine thrust could create a tiny pitching moment but the leverage will only be a few inches at max thus the moment being very small compared to the gravity VS lift pitching moment resulting from the horizontal distance between CG and CP.
In the end question is somewhat similar to :
&quot;what's better low or high wing planes?&quot;. On one side CG is above or near the wings and on the other hand way below the wing. Both works fine and requires only small design variations for aerodynamics stability.