I too play with my high tom at almost the same level and angle as my snare... For me, it's about using the same technique around the kit. I try to play mostly with what I think is called "german grip" where my palms generally face the floor and I'm using my wrist joint the way it has the most dexterity.
When the 'high tom' is actually placed high and angled towards the drummer more, you have to use a different hand technique to play the high and floor tom. It just feels more natural to me when I'm playing 'down' into all my drums and cymbals rather than playing in front of me.
I agree with this. My snare is tilted
slightly forward, and my tom is
almost flat and a couple inches above the snare.
My floor toms are flat on both sides. This lets me use the same exact hand position for any drum surface on the kit. My cymbals aren't very high either. I ride and crash each one, so they are just in comfortable height positions.
I adjusted everything so my hand was relaxed, using the same motion on everything. I mainly use Moller.
My hands are the same height for snare and floor toms and just raised a little for the tom.
I play OFF the surface, and draw the sound out, rather than playing into it.
I play off the bass drum too, I don't bury the beater at all.
This also helps with playing on different kits on back line gigs.
Since I play off the head, the 22" size of a back line kit doesn't throw me off from my bass drum, which is a 26. There's a little different feel, sure, but it's not so much that it's distracting, and I forget about it in a few seconds.
With the toms, on a back line kit, I just deal with what I get put in front of me, and hopefully they are adjustable enough.