Base resistor configurations, are there any differences?
Your two circuits break down into the following:







simulate this circuit &ndash; Schematic created using CircuitLab

On the left side, you can see that \$R_1\$ is isolated and irrelevant to the BJT circuit. On the right side, you can see that there is a difference that I'll get to, shortly.

Note that you are correct about the possibility of setting \$R_2\$ on the left side schematic so that similar base current occurs in \$Q_1\$ in both schematics.

Okay. So what's better about the right side schematic? On the left side, you are stuck using your voltage rail, \$V_\text{CC}\$. But on the right side you can fabricate any source voltage: \$0\:\text{V}\le V_\text{TH}\le V_\text{CC}\$. As well as arranging for whatever you need as \$R_\text{TH}\$. This is a huge advantage and provides another degree of design freedom.

By the way, few people would ever consider hooking up an NPN BJT so that the collector is tied directly to the positive voltage rail and the emitter is tied to ground. That is just asking for trouble.