It is always better to load all the heavy stuff behind this line. Your boat is going to perform best with the nose up and all the weight being carried by the pad or at the transom of the boat. We all trim our motor full down coming out of the hole and then trim up to get the nose out and the attitude of the boat where it runs at maximum efficiency. For every pound you load forward of your balance point it is going to cost you at least one mile per hour in performance. If your motor is using horsepower to lift the nose, its not going to be there to produce the performance you are paying for.
Water is drag.
The more of your boat that touches the water or rides down in the water, the slower you go. Here we enter into a choice though. The super high performance boats tend to have a wider more concave pad and ride strokes that lift the boat out of the water better, but tend to ride a little rougher than the narrow pad V-bottom boats. This is all personal choice, but the prop you pick will be slightly different for each choice. Your boat dealer will have basic recommendations of a few props you can try on your boat.